Another chance
by BMIK
Summary: OgataxSai Sai is back and has some problems coping with his newly found body and the mayhem that is Tokyo in the 21th century. complete
1. Chapter 1

_Just finished watching Hikaru no go and Sai totally captured my heart. I thought it was a shame that he had to disappear , so I´m reviving him :) _ _This will be a yaoi fic, though I´m not sure how far they will go... uhm well. So, hope you enjoy._

_disclaimer: I do not own Hikaru no Go _

1

The first thing he felt was his throbbing, aching head. It was a painful pulling, just as if someone tried with all his strenght to tear his poor brain out of his skull.Wincing, he reached out a delicate hand to stroke the back of his head, oblivious to the silky sensation that reached the nerves of his fingers, caused by his smooth long wisps of hair. Dazed and still only half awake, heopened his eyes slowly, squeezing them shut immediately against the bright light that increased his agony. After a few minutes had passed by and the pain had dulled down a bit, Sai felt confident enough to give it another try. Carefully he peeked out at the world from under lowered lids, slowly rising from his lying position on his side to a half sitting one. He steadied himself with one arm, sleeply taking in his surroundings.

"Uh…Where am I…" The last thing he could remember was playing his beloved go with Hikaru and then…

"Uaaaaaaaah? Cemetary?!"

Dumbfounded and suddenly very awake, Sai stared at the large gravestones that were put up around him and sat up bilt upright. Which wasn´t such a bright idea considering his head ache, bordering on a fully developed migraine, and he soon enough regreted his rushed movement when another jolt of pain pierced through his head. Moaning he rubbed his temple, squeezing his eyes shut again.

Right, he had been playing go with Hikaru and then something had happened…

He had vanished. His purpose had been fulfilled and his restless ghost, which had been kept in a go board for nearly one thousand years had finally been taken to the other side, he remembered now.

But… why was he here?

Honestly, he hadn´t imagined heaven to look like a run down graveyard and be so… painful.

Wait.

He could feel pain? Suddenly he became very aware of the throbbing in his head. The dizziness. The little stones digging into his palm. The warm sunlight shining on his back…

Something was wrong, wasn´t it?

Confused and open mouthed, Sai risked another glance up, reading the inscription of the gravestone he currenty was residing under.

"Shusaku Honinbo…Eh?!" Why was he lying on his own grave?! Well,technically it wasn´t really his, but this was totally beside the point anyway.

Why the hell was he here?! Before he could ponder over the problem, a shadow lurked over him, causing him to look up at the source of the lightblocking. He was met with some old, yellowed wrinkled eyes, and thin lips.

"Oi, boy, what do you think you're doing? Sleeping on a graveyard! No respect, the young folks, really!"

An old woman with her hands fold behind her back leaned over him with an unpleased expression, surveying him up and down, apparently nauseated.

Sai stared back at her with a blank face, trying to process what was happening. Finally he opened his mouth, as if to say something, then closed it and in another attempt to articulate himself opened it again. Pointing with one finger at himself, he finally managed a: "You…you can see me?"

"Eh?" The old woman tilted her head and looked at him like he was imbecile, then spit next to his feet and snarled "lready drunk at this hour of day? You should be ashamed! Tsk, kids these days…Get out of here before I call the police."

Totally ignoring the old hag's threat, Sai kept staring at her enthralled, while the woman was going on grousing about how the world was rotting away, totally lost in his own thoughts. Eventually, he slowly reached out his hand and poked his antagonist with one finger in the cheek.

"What the…Hey! What do you think you are doing?! Stop poking me!"

Utterly amazed, Sai stuck his finger into her old wrinkled flesh again and again, a wide grin spreading across his face. When was the last time he had felt something? And she could actually SEE him! Could this, by any chance, mean that he was… not dead?

He didn´t dare to hope so, for he couldn´t have borne to have his dreams shattered… Still, he had to know! Letting his hand fall back into his lap, Sai straightened up a little, preparing himself for the worst, and with a determinded look asked the woman

"Say, am I dead? Is this, I mean… This is heaven, isn´t it?"

Bewildered, the poor woman stared at the strange man who had finally stopped violating her face, before she gathered herself and screamed at him "Are you mental?! That´s it, I´m calling the police! Then we´ll see if this is heaven or hell for you!!!"

Fuming, she stomped away, soon disappearing between the tombstones.

Alienated, Sai watched her back for a few seconds, then coming back to his senses. Police… He had heard from Hikaru about that organisation, which kept law and order in the modern times… So, if there was a police, didn´t this mean that he really was alive? After all, he highly doubted that something like a police was needed in heaven…

Reality slowly sinking in, his eyes became tearful and he clasped his hands togheter in front of his chest, crying out

"Kami-sama!!! Thank you!!!"

With a grateful and reverential gaze he stared up into the sky, silently thanking the gods again and again that he had gotten another chance to obtain the hand of god. Because this was what it was about, wasn´t it? The gods, in their infinte kindliness had granted him another chance, another life, this time as one amongst humans, to satisfy his deepest desire and perfect his go! Absorbed in his prayers of eternal gratitude, he nearly missed the sound of the sirens which kept coming closer with every passing second. Snapping out of his musings, Sai hurried to stand up from the dusty stones, wavering a bit as he did so. It had been quite a time since he had last felt his feet, let alone held his balance. Very much similar to a drunkard, he staggered along the graves, switching between trying to look as little suspicious as he could, being overwhelmed with gratitude and staring at the sky lovingly just to exhort himself in the next second to be insuspicious and focused again. First of all, he had to get to get out of this place. Ducked and constantly surveying his surroundings, he tripped from gravestone to gravestone, trying to avoiding any visitors and all in all looking incredibly telltale. Though eventually he made it trough the entry unbothered. Sighing in relief after having passed by the empty police car and savely made it out of sight, he leaned against the stonewall of the cemetary, mentally congratulating hilmself for his own brilliance.

Now that he was out of danger what was he to do? The first thing that immidiately came to mind was palying go of course! But where could he do it? Clueless, Sai looked around. There wasn´t any place that seemed to be fitting for his purpose…

No! Could it be that he had come this far and was about to fail so soon?!

Near the verge of tears, Sai held his hands over his mouth, suppressing a sob.

Wait. Hadn´t Hikaru gone to this clubs when he had wanted to pla-.

Hikaru!!!

How could he have forgotten about his precious student!

Surely Hikaru would know what to do and besides, wouldn´t he be overwhelmed with happiness to have his sensei back? With a felicitous face and a satisfied smile, Sai pushed himself away from the wall and started his way towards his new found destination, all the way imagining their reunion and smiling even widening.

_reviews would be great, they keep me motivated!_


	2. 2 Reunion

_Hello there again! Thanks for all the nice reviews, they are so motivating, honestly! Hence I couldn´t restist posting another chapter_ _though I really don´t have I time... Anyway, please enjoy!_

2. Reunion

He had finally made it. Being so very determined on reaching his destination, Sai had successfully ignored the strange stares and muffled whispered that had been directed at him due to his rather odd appearance. From his earlier travels through the city, the go player had been able to recall the route he had to take and now he was standing in front of the familiar house. He couldn´t wait to see Hikarus surprised expression, and snickered into his sleeve. So filled with anticipation was he that he didn´t even recocnize his bleeding feet or his dishevelled appearance. Nervously stomping from one foot to the other he finally raised his fist and rapped at the wooden door, grining fom ear to ear and trying to suppress another giggle. After the third knock, the door opened slightly and one single eye peeked out at him, belonging to a middle aged woman. "Yes?"

Sai flashed her his brightest smile "Good afternoon!"

The woman made a terrified step back. "G-good afternoon…"

Expectantly grinning at her, Sai waved his hand a little. She could see him. This was a good sign! Hikarus mother carefully observed the strange man standing in her doorway and waving at her like a lunatic from a save distance. She hadn´t ever seen him before for she was sure that she _definitely_ would´ve recalled him if she had. Apart from his shredded,ridiculously large and dirty clothes, his hair stood up from his head in every possible direction, hosting various slimy looking objects, she didn´t even want to _think_ about what it once might had been. His face was covered with dust and one of his shoes was missing. Carefully said, he did not smell nice.

Pertubed, Mrs. Shindo tried to summon a smile, at which she failed quite spectacularly and cleared her throath. "I´m sorry, but we don´t give money to beggars…"

"Eh?" Sai stopped mid-wave but before he could clear up the misunderstanding (how dare she mistake him for a homeless?! First a drunken, now a beggar, what was to come next?! Oh, how he mighty have fallen!), the rumbling of footsteps runing down the stairs could be heard and suddenly the door was pushed open.

"Mum, I´m at the Institude for while, will be back for dinne-" The boy, who was more of a young man now, stopped midsentence and abruptly came to a halt when he saw the man in the doorway. At first he could only make out his frame, as the sun was going down behind him and cast shadows over his face. But the long hair, and the sheme of his clothes were all too known.

"S-Sai?"

There they stood, Hikaru with one hand at the door frame, staring at his visitor as if he had just seen a ghost (haha, not quite right, at least not anymore…) and Sai, being too overwhelmed to do anything else but standing still where he stood and facing his student with tears in his eyes. Hikarus mother absentminded wiped her hands at her apron she was wearing for making dinner and glanced from her child to the beggar and back with an irritated frown. The world seemed to come to a halt for a moment. Finally Hikaru found his voice and with a shaking hand he reached out for the man he didn´t have thought to ever see again.

"Sai…" His voice cracked, but it felt like some sort of spell had been broken, and the next second Hikarus mother watched the stranger flinging himself at her son, hugging him on the verge of suffocation and all the while yelping "Hikaruuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu!!!".

Hikaru himself seemed too shocked for a proper reaction and instead continued to stare and blink and stare and blink, trying to understand what was happening.

"How- how is this possible?"

"Uhm Hikaru? Is this person someone you know?" Hikarus mother thought it was time that she was put into the picture of what was going on, being clearly disconcerted by the behaviour of the two.

Looking from his former go teacher, who clung to him like an ape, crying with joy and stretching the sound of his name in various ways and forms, to his mother, Hikaru finally managed to overcome his confusion and answered his with a tentative "Eh."

"So… where did you meet?" she inquired offishly, obviously not happy with the choice of friends her son made.

"We.. well, eh…" looking back at a beaming Sai who had finally let go of his unfortunate t-shirt, he mentally went through a million of possible, _plausible_ explanations he could gave her. Normally Hikaru didn´t like lying to her, but he couldn´t possibly tell her that Sai was a 1000 year old spirit who had possessed him through a go board, could he? Fortunatly (or was it?) during the time he had spent with Sai, out of necessity he had become a rather skilled liar.

"Well, that´s a friend from the go Institute. I called him over for practice…"

"Ah?" Suspiciously eying the young man, who grinned and waved at her again, Hikarus mother wasn´t really convinced. This was how pros looked like? All of a sudden she didn´t know if she liked her son to be a professional anylonger.

But then she didn´t have a clue about go anyway, so she sighed in resignation and forced herself to wave back.

"Hello there then. Nice to meet you."

If it was possible, Sais smile grew even wider. Inwardly heaving a sigh of relieve, Hikarus tensed shoulders relaxed. That had been close… Not to imagine what could have happened if she had found out that…

Wait a moment. Wasn´t something just utterly wrong?

"Mum… you… can see him?" Crossing her arms over her chest, Mrs Shindo huffed

"Of course I can see him. Especially the dirty path he´s leaving behind him." Raising an eyebrow, she sent an accusing glance at her son and the intruder, the latter scratching his head and smiling apologetically.

"I see." Hikaru said in a monotone, as if everything suddenly made perfect sense, but clearly not comprehending anything at all.

"Nee, Hikaru?" tugging at his friends sleeve, Sai impatiently shifted from one foot to the other, trying to avoid the womans unhappy eyes.

"Why don´t we go up into your room?"

"Uh? Yeah, okay…"

Relieved, Sai turned to follow Hikaru, who mechanically walked up the stairs ahead of him. Though before he went after his former student, he faced Hikarus mother to tell her with utter sincerity how nice it had been to meet her. Mrs Shindo answered with a somewhat forced smile that the pleasure had been entirely hers, trying to ignore the black, dusty trail Hikarus friend left behind. With a shake of her head, she closed the front door and went back to the kitchen to finish dinner.

_--------- _

_SaikaDragon asked when the story takes place. I have to admit that I am still not familiar with the timeline of Hikaru no go, so I think one year after Sais disappearance seems okay. Also, he woke up in Tokio._

_Well then, please leave a review and don´t hesitate to tell me what I did wrong or what you liked or didn´t liked :) _


	3. Can we play go now!

3

"So, that´s how it´s been." Hikaru was sitting on the floor with crossed legs, rubbing his chin and looking thoughtful. The other knelt in front of him nodding enthusiastically and expectantly stared at his friend.

Hikaru still wasn´t sure if he had gotten everything from Sais confused and rushed report, between his explanations the man had fallen into fits of huggings and exclaimings about how happy he was to be back and be able to play go aigain, but Hikaru was confident that he had gotten the most important parts. Still, it felt so very unreal to have Sai back, to talk to him, to see him, to even FEEL him. Not that he wasn´t happy, mind you, but it was just… a little too much at once. Through his dizziness he watched Sai blabbering and to be up in arms against the outrageous old woman who had insulted him at the cemetary and how he cleverly had avoided getting arrested, all the while his expression changing from sulky to smug and then back to happy again.

"So, what are you going to do now?"

Stoping in his narrations, Sai looked at him blankly, then his face lit up and he exclaimed cheerfully "Playing go of course!" 

Hikaru supressed the urge to slap his forehead. At least Sai's dangerously carefree and determined attitude hadn´t changed. Though he wasn´t sure if this was a good thing or not... 

"Hikaru, let´s play!" 

Sighing, Hikaru crashed his senseis enthusiasm with a simple, but authoritarian "No." 

"He? But… Hikaru…" with teary eyes full of grief and despair,the heian man looked at his friend. Unfortunately for him, Hikaru remained stern and crossed his arms over his chest. "First we have to cope with more important things." 

"More… important things?" What could possibly be more important than go!

"Right. For example your clothes." An accusing finger was pointed at the lilac haired man, who now for the first time cared to look down at himself, being seemingly embarassed as he noticed the poor state he was in. "Oh."

"Yeah. And by the why, you could need a shower. Badly." 

"Shower?" astonished, Sai faced his friend again. He had never heard of 'shower' before, most likely because it had been something which hadn´t had concerned him in his ghost like state. Lucky days, where he didn´t have to bother with cleaning himself up…

"You´ll see." Hikaru waved his hand impatiently, rose from the ground and dragged Sai towards the bathroom. Sai tried to protest, being somewhat anxious about this shower-thing, but his weak resistance was crushed by the vigorous push from his former student. Shoved into the bathroom, Sai was ordered to undress and hand over his dirty clothes. Hikaru promised that he would give him new ones and that he could get his old attire back as soon as they were washed. Hikaru turned on the water and after explaining the basics of how to shower properly, he left the man alone to enjoy his bath. Closing the door, Hikaru leaned against it heavily with a sigh and sqeezed his eyes shut for a moment. After he had let out a deep breath and made sure he could hear the water rushing from the shower, he glanced at the dirty, ragged clothes thrown over his arm, and with another sigh carried them outside into the trash. He didn´t want to exacerbate Sai, but now that he was one of his own kind, he had to learn how to life in the 21th century.

And the sooner he understood, the better.And less troublesome for everyone involved (which was namely Hikaru himself…). Sighing again, Hikaru went back into the house to search for some fitting clothes for sai in his fathers wardrobe.

After twentie minutes Sai appeared back in Hikarus room seemingly pleased and refreshed. "Ah, this shower-thing sure is nice." And stark naked. Turning a deep shade of red, Hikaru turned around quickly, tossing some clothes at the oblivious man. 

"Gods, cover yourself!" Not knowing what the commotion was about, Sai shrugged it off and started to arrange himself with his new clothes. "Nee, Hikaru that sham-poo smells really nice! Ah, it is so beautiful to finally be able to enjoy these kind of things…" 

Making a grunting noice, which could have meant everything, Hikaru observed the carpet, waiting for Sai to finish his dressing. "But this clothes surely are strange…" frowning, Sai tugged at his trousers, turning his zipper up and down, feeling awkward and slightly uneasy in this tight and unfamiliar clothes. And he began to terribly miss his hat, he felt so naked and exposed without it! Maybe they could go back to the cemetary tomorrow and search for it?

"Stop that!" Hikaru bellowed, even more embarassed, and Sai let go if the zipper, not knowing what he had done wrong again this time, but being still too happy and excited to sulk for long.

"Can we play go now?" he instead inquired, hungrily eying the go board which was neatly placed next between Hikarus commode and his desk. Before the boy could give a declining answer, someone rapped at the door and a few seconds later Hikarus mother entered the room, carrying a tray of food. "Hikaru, I thought you and your friend might be hungry…Uh. Excuse me, but who are you?" She stood in the middle of the room with her tray in both hands turning her head around in search for the dirty beggar, but all she could see was Hikaru and a breathtakingly beautiful young man. Said man had a lovely, almost girlish face with huge violet eyes, framed by long black lashes and thin eyebrows. His smooth, shining and still a litlle wet hair was held together at his waist with a band and his slender figure was covered in a white shirt and black suit, albeit they seemed a little too big and strangely familiar. Right now, Sai seemed to be as confused as she was and Hikaru sweatdroped, taking the tray out of his mothers hands and ushered her out of his room with a muttered "Thanks. Now leave us alone for a while, we have something important to discuss."

When he came back into the room, Sai had already taken care of off half of the food, stuffing his face with noodles and making approving noices. The food in this day and age was delicious! 

Sighing again, he seemed to do this a lot since Sai had returned, Hikaru sat down on the bed, not feeling very hungry at the moment and waited for Sai to finish his meal. When the last crump had found its way into Sais seemingly bottomless stomache, and the man leaned back against the wall with a satisfied expression and small smile, Hikaru cleared his throat. It was time to get down with some business.

"Can we play go now?" 

Even though he liked Sai, he _really_ did, and was just so very happy to have him back, Hikaru had a hard time to not strangle the man to death! It wasn´t like he didn´t share his passion for the game, but honestly did the guy EVER think of something else! 

"No, we can´t." came the exasperated answer, and ignoring the pouting and huffing, Hikaru continued "We first have to think about how we deal wth your sudden appearance." 

"What do you mean?" 

"I mean, that you can´t just suddenly come out of nowhere! People will get suspicious, you know." 

"Ah. I see." A thoughtful expression appeared at the mans face.

"Mhmh." Hikaru nodded. "We'd be in a lot of trouble if someone would find out about your real identity…More so when someone with the name of 'Sai' turns up with me, with a divine talent for go…" 

Being deep in thought and speaking more to himself, the boy didn´t notice the sparkling in Sais eyes at hearing his praises.

"Mh…and you don´t have a place to stay, or a job or even money…" 

Now being slightly worried, Sai asked "But, can´t I stay with you, Hikaru? Just like before?" "Dunno. My mother would get suspicious and all." Seeing the mans fearful expression, Hikaru hurried to summon a smile and laugh awkwardly, waving his hands in front of him 

"But don´t worry, it´ll be okay for a while. I´ll just say that your apartment burned down or something like that." 

Sai nodded, relieved and then suddenly beamed at him again "Now, since we have cleared up everything, can we play go?"

Dropping his head in defeat and amazement at how Sai managed to ignore any obstacle that threatened his life for the love of go, he grabbed the board and decided that tomorrow was still enough time to come up with a proper plan.

---------

I´d like to thank SeikaDragon for the useful link (I finally read the manga, yay!)and hittocerebattosai for pointing out the "tokio"-thing :) I will be careful about this in the future, so thanks again!

I was wondering if anyone has any ideas of how old Sai was, when he drowned himself? I couldn´t find any infos on that and I suppose he´s in his early twenties, but maybe someone knows the exact age?


	4. modern life is rubbish

4

Sai looked out of the window with his chin propped in his palm, humming a happy little tune and glancing at the clock on Hikarus nightstand from time to time.

The clockhand hadn´t moved much from the last time he'd had a look, it was still painfully far away from being 2 pm. Sighing, Sai let his gaze wander back into the blue sky, following the track of a bird until it vanished in the distance. He had done this particular activity for exactly 3hours 38 minutes and 15 seconds. After Hikaru had left for school this morning, with the strict order to stay in his room and not do anything stupid (as if he would! Doing anything stupid, that was…), he had tried to keep himself busy and patiantly await Hikarus arrival, so that they could play go again. Meaning he had been eagerly waiting for his friends return since 8 o'clock in the morning.

At first it hadn´t seemed like such a difficult task, he´d had breakfast in Hikarus room, then he had flicked through some old editions of 'Weekly Go'. After that hehad tried to watch TV to distract himself. When he had been a ghost he´d been fascinated by the small box and though Hikaru had tried to explain to him that it was only technique and a common thing these days, Sai was secretly convinced that there had to be some magic involved. After all, how could so many big things and people fit into such a small box?

However, he wasn´t in the mood to watch TV today. As ghost he hadn´t had much of a choice, so TV had been a very welcomed distraction when Hikaru had been busy and no time to play with him, but now that he was able to play go himself again…

He shot a longing look towards the go board and sighed. But playing go against himself was no fun, he had tried this morning for almost an hour until he had given up in resignation. He glanced at the clock again. 12.57…

He let out another dramatic breath, pitying himself for the horrible situation he was in. Finally being able to play go and not being able to at the same time was just so cruel…Had he made a mistake? Was he in hell after all? Burying his head in his arms, Sai kept on sighing, hoping one of the gods would notice his misery and show some mercy, when suddenly a brilliant idea hit him.

If Hikaru couldn´t come to him to play go, Sai would go to Hikaru!

Amazed by his own genius, Sai raised a fist into the air, startling some birds in a tree nearby.

That was a plan! Sai knew that Hikaru couldn´t play with him while in class, but he could wait for him in front of the schoolyard and then they could visit some go club where no one knew them! It would be at least a useful thing to overcome time, the weather was nice and he liked to take a stroll. Plus he would have to wait even shorter for Hikaru, since they could walk home together.

With a confident grin plastered on his face, Sai marched down the stairs and out into the world that was Tokyo of the 21th. century.

As soon as he reached one of the main streets, Sais confidence had shrunken remarkably.

Now one would think that when people could see him, they actually could AVOID him, but it seemed that everyone was too busy or too careless or wathever to show some consideration, and so he found himself being pushed forwards and backwards and to make things worse he was still so irritated by all the unusual things which moved around, namely busses and cars and so on and so forth…

And there were a lot of shops with stunning and extraordinary things displayed in the windows and he was just so confused…

Someone pushed him from behind, and since his attention had been caught by a man with a sign that screamed that the end of the world was near (a message that troubled him immensely, for he had been revived only a day ago. It would be a shame if his days as a human were already at risk again…), Sai wasn´t prepared and fell to his knees, painfully scratching it.

Gritting his teeth and complaining about his luck, he failed to notice that his punisher had at least enough civility to help him up.

It was a young teenage girl, or at least he supposed she was, for he couldn´t make out her real age with all the make up that was added to her face. When she saw _his_ face, she smiled brightly at him, asking if he was okay, what his name was, if he had a girlfriend and if she could get his phone number.

Sai was too pertubed to answer, one reason being that he didn´t even understand half of her questions (what was 'phone' again?) and panic-stricken escaped into a nearby alley.

Women in this day and age scared him to no end! They were so utterly unpredictable and forward…

Calming his pounding heart and taking deep breaths he reminded himself to not loose focus. He only had to go to Hirakus school, it wasn´t that difficult. More so as he had walked that way so many times together with his former host that he could make it there with closed eyes! After reassuring himself he felt a little better and with new found enthusiasm was about to complete his task, when he inwardly flinched and eyed his surroundings. Apparently, he had no idea where he was.

--

Another chapter, yay! So, I´m very happy that so many people are reading my story, but I would be even more so if you could just leave a tiny little review to tell me what you thing? Even one word would be great!


	5. Chapter 5

5

He didn´t know how long he wandered the irritating and confusing streets of tokyo, but that didn´t really matter. Fact was, he was hopelessly lost. Not only did he have no clue where he was right now at all, since he had found out that he´d ended up in an unkown alley there hadn´t been one thing he did recognize from former strolls with Hikaru.

And to top it off, he had the unpleasant and overwhelming feeling that he was getting further away from his destination with every step he took.

But it was impossible to ask someone for the right direction because first off, under no circumstances would he talk to strangers. It was too suspicious and he had to avoid being suspicous at any costs, or at least that was what Hikaru had told him.

And he did believe what Hikaru said for the boy had far much more experience with this world than he had. Hence asking was no option.

Second, even if he had been able to overcome his fear and actually ask someone, he didn't know where he really wanted to go back to. Sure, he wanted to go to Hikarus school but he couldn´t tell that a random person.

How would a complete stranger know where 'Hikaru´s school' was…

Fighting the urge to cry and being suspicious, Sai had told himself to be strong like it was appropriate for a warrior like himself. He was a great go player after all and having been a ghost for 1000 years and being back in the world of the living again, he surely had dealt with much more troublesome things than that.

Right. This was peanuts compared to what he had already been through!

At exactly that moment, a blinding light pierced through the sky, followed by a heavy, bone shattering roar and only seconds later the heavens opened to grace poor Sai with a downpour.

He wasn´t afraid of thunder, really he wasn´t (well, maybe a little bit…), but now he wasn´t only lost in a labyrinth of streets, alleys and dead ends, no, he was soaked, cold, hungry, desperate and frightenend!

At least no one would notice the tears now…

Clinging his arms around his torso, trying to make himself as small as possible, he hurried down the streets, hoping to find something that looked familiar and would lead him into the right direction.

Since the rain was so heavy he could hardly see the path before him and the constant thunder and lightening didn´t help his concentration or to keep his calm.

Hadn´t the sky been crystalclear when he had left for his journey?!

Now it seemed more like an odyssey, one that he could have been without!

Considering the condition he was in, it was no wonder that he didn´t see the red car coming from his left until it was too late.

Really, could one have a worst day in life when one was not even two days old?

--

So sorry this took so long! And I know, I know, it´s short and people are waiting for some OgataXSai action and until now the other part of the pairing didn´t even make an appearance... But I promise all will be better in the next chapter, really!

Soooo, leave me comment and I might ignore the pile of work that is waiting for me and will finally get down to business with the ogata/sai thingy!


	6. it can ALLWAYS get worse

Ogata cursed under his breath and stubbed out his cigarette in the ashtray. He bent over the wheel trying to see something through the heavy rain that kept splashing on his windscreen and seemed to viciously laugh at his wipers desperate attempts to clear the drivers vision. Frustrated, the blonde haired go player drove down the empty street with narrowed eyes, if one even could call this speed driving as he surely would have been faster if he´d walked. Being so concentrated on the road, he didn´t pay attention to what his left hand was doing and before he knew what was happening, a burning sensation shot through his index finger. Cursing again he glanced at the ashtray just for a tiny little moment, and in that nanosecond he hit something. Shocked by the bounce he hit the brakes and came to a sudden halt, the car spining around on the slippery streets.

Breathing hard, Ogata sat behind the wheel for a painfully long 10 seconds, clutching the gearstick so hard his knuckles turned white. When he had come back to reality, he leaned forward again, staring through the front window in awe, but all he could make out was the rain dripping against the window.

'Please let it only have been a stray cat…'

With shaking hands he opened the door and stepped into the rain, being soaked wet immediately. Though right now he didn´t care one bit, all he had in his mind was what he had knocked down.

He staggered around the car on shaky legs until he could finally make out his victim. Through his blurred vision and the raindrops on his glasses, Ogata couldn´t see what he had run over exactly, but to gather from its shape and form it was unfortunately far too large to be a cat.

The figure on the ground was definitly human and it wasn´t moving…

"Fuck." Though the Go player was not one for swearing under normal circumstances, he couldn´t be bothered with being well mannered right now and hurried over to the still form, kneeling beside it and shaking its shoulder.

"Hey, are you all right?"

A moan was heard, which was a good sign since it meant that the person was at least alive. From the short distance between him and his unlucky pedestrian Ogata could make out long, voilet hair that was sprawled out around the persons body and the slender frame. Wiping with one sleeve of his suit over his glasses to get a better view, he eventually was able to take a look at the persons face and was taken aback for a second. It seemed he had hit a stunningly BEAUTIFUL woman, though she seemed to be rather flat chested, but oh well, one couldn´t have everything and her fair face made up for the lack of humps on her front…

He briefly wondered if she would need mouth-to-mouth-respiration. (Though the most important and only significant thing in his life was go, he still had some needs, which he was canny enough to acknowledge. Still, even if he wasn´t known as one of the stronger advocates of morality, taking advantage of such a situation didn´t quite suit his sense of ethics.)

The 'woman' groaned again, coming back from unconciusness and in a clumsy, but nontheless fascinating gracefull attempt tried to sit up.

Ogata hurried to support her backside with one hand, asking her again in a calm, albeit slightly concerned tone:

"Are you all right Miss?"

The 'miss' rubbed her forehead and gazed dizzily into the rain. Then she seemed to notice her company as she looked up with a confused expression, brows furrowed. "Uh?"

Apparently she hadn´t understand his question and Ogata patiently and very so slowly repeated the question for the third time, as if he was speaking to a demented child. "Are you all right?"

Sais vision had been blurry when he had more or less recovered from the impact and tried to comprehend what was going on.

His head was aching again, but in the back of his mind he had been overjoyed to notice that he even felt pain and ergo was _still_ alive.

But then the dizziness subsided and he saw his savior and recogniced him as the blonde go-player who had taken Hikaru under his wings, OF ALL PEOPLE!!

The shock must have been obvious on his face, as Ogata withdraw his hand from the alleged womans back. Blaming the recently happened accident for the source of her bewilderment, the go player cleared his throath.

"I am utterly sorry for hitting you with the car, through the heavy rain I failed to see the street clearly and you appeared before me so suddenly."

The woman kept staring at him open mouthed. Ogata tried again, this time reaching out with his hand slowly so as not to frighten her and prepare her for the contact. "Are you hurt?" Before he could touch him, Sai made a spectacular jump back, impressive for he still sat on his ass.

"I-I'm perfectly fine, n-no need to worry, really!" he added a shaking laugh, hoping it would convince the other to go back to his car and leave him alone!

Ogata blinked at him somewhat dumbfounded, banishing the fact that he had taken his victim for a female from his mind before he could get embarrassed (did he really need it THAT much again?! Maybe he should stop by at one of his occasional girlfriends houses…), and adjusted his glasses. With a now clearly cooler voice he asked "Are you sure?" and was about to get up from the wet pavement.

"Ye-yes of course! Everything is fine, see?" with a cheerful and very forced smile, Sai enthusiastically jolted upright, just to make a high pitched and (Ogata noticed with some saticfaction) rather womanly noice, sinking back and holding his ankle.

"I see." The blonde man remarked dryly and with a smooth movement knelt next to the suffering man.

"I´ll better call an ambulance or drive you to the hospital, it might be broken."

Though the foot didn´t seem to be dislocated. Still he had some sense of responsibility and technically it had been his fault that they were standing, or better kneeling here in the rain now. This was so troublesome…

The man glanced up at him with a painful, but nonetheless, even more shocked expression than before, shaking his head in refusal. "No! No, I´m fine, I don´t need hospital!"

Sai fought back a sob of pain and bit his lip. Just how had he gotten himself into this? And here he had wanted to be insuspicious and invisible to the world! Was he so incompetent? He was brutally thrown out of his brooding, when _the man _cocked an eyebrow and, with absolutely no pity for the misery of poor Sai declared that he didn´t _seem _fine and that they definitely had to do something about his ankle.

Sais thoughts rushed through his mind, as he desperately searched to find a solution on how he could get rid of _this person_, but all he could do was staring up in a helpless and fearful manner, his mouth opening and closing frequently (for a moment he reminded the blonde go player of a fish out of water. He liked fish...).

Ogata stood there, feeling the annoying raindrops running down his neck and into his suit. Really, he was becoming tired of this and was about to turn around and flip open his cell to call an ambulance despite the other mans protest, when said mans bottom lip began to tremble. Slightly at first it soon became stronger and his thick drops, that weren´t from the rain, rolled down his cheeks. A heart wrenching sob gave the blonde man the rest and he put away the phone, rubbing the bridge of his nose irritated.

"Fine then, no hospital."

He sighed, seriously asking himself if the man had been run from an asylum. Though he couldn´t help the strange feeling when the man wipped his running nose with his sleeve, like a little kid would do, and presented him a shy and grateful smile. With one hand in his pocked, with the other hand making a small gesture with his hand Ogata continued, sounding a little less cold. "Still we have to to something about your foot." His face was an unreadable mask and this time he didn´t give in when the man, what was his name anyway?, protested.

With a firm grip on his arm, he pushed the man up to his feet, supporting him so that he didn´t have to put weight on his injured leg, and dragged him towards the car. Sais attempts to free himself and complain about the mans rude and inacceptable behaviour were silenced with one cold glare from Ogata. The man could be rather intimidating if he wanted to be, and right now he was determined to get that strange person to his apartment, give him the necessary medical treatment and then be done with it! Not struggling anylonger, but still willing to express his disagreement with a huge pout, Sai sat in the front seat, arms crossed over his chest and dramatically ignoring the other mans presence by demonstratively glaring out of the window. Unfortnately Ogata didn´t seem to be impressed by his behavior, th opposite was the case, this… man, who had run him over with his STUPID car and who generally was the one at fault anyways, had the nerve to calmly sit next to him and _dared _to ignore Sais entire presence completely.

Huffing, the former ghost slipped to the left as far away from the driver as he could and continued to glare daggers at the raindrops splashing against the window. From the corner of his eye, Ogata observed the overly childish behaviour of his front-seat passanger, resisting the urge to shake his head at the man and drove around a corner.

--

The long awaited next chapter And FINALLY we meet Ogata. So, what do you think?

(I´m wondering what it takes to make people leave me a comment? I´d enjoy reading them so much! Probably even more than you are enjoying (or maybe not?) reading my story. So let´s make a deal, shall we? You review, I write story )


	7. best invention of all times

Hey. New chapter, sorry for the long wait, but its summer and my professors decided to be assholes and... oh, well. Hope you enjoy anyway!

7

The rest of the drive had past in silence since Ogata was determined to not again hit anything anytime soon, hence needing all his concentration for driving and leaving nothing left for conversation. Sai on the other hand was still a little sulky, but far more fascinated with the event that was driving in a car. Of course he had used public transportation with Hikaru before, but then he had been bodyless and hitherto he hadn´t been driving in a car! So consumed by this new experience was he, that he nearly forgot about his aching ankle or the precarious situation he had gotten himself into.

When they reached Ogatas apartment complex they made it to the elevator with a fair amount of difficulty, Sai using the other man for support, though he´d rather not as he was someone who respected other peoples privat sphere. But then he had no choice, as it was impossible for him to move on his own (save for crawling, but this really wasn´t an option) and Ogata had said he didn´t mind since he was soaked and dirty anyways.

He felt awkward however when the elevator started to go up and Sai made a surprised but delighted noise, due to the light feeling in his stomach. Seeing Ogatas reaction, Sai cast his gaze downwards and bit his lip. "My apologies".

Why was it just so hard to be not suspicious? Though it wasn´t his fault, he thought. He had come to know a lot about the modern times, but knowing and feeling were two different things and he was still unprepared and surprised about so many little things.

Meanwhile Ogata observed his soon to be guest closely and with a slight frown. This man was just strange. Though he didn´t seem dangerous to Ogata, just…strange and maybe somewhat innocent.

Eventually they had reached their floor and made it into Ogatas apartment without any major incident.

Exhausted, Ogata let go of the man and sat him down on one of his chair cushions. He desperately needed a cigarette, but first he had to attend to the wounds of his guest and then get rid of him as fast as possible.

Looking at the miserable man on the floor, sitting in a puddle of rainwater, shivering fom the cold and looking somewhat afraid, Ogatas exasperation melted into nothing and he heaved a rather deep sigh and rubbed the bridge of his nose.

"Please, make yourself at home. I´ll look if I can find some clothes that fit your size and make some tea, you are freezing."

Sai, being the well mannered person he was, instantly told his saviour to not put himself out onSais account, but Ogata just dismissed his concerns with a wave of his hand and went to his bedroom to search for clothes. Like he wasn´t already bothered anyway…

When he came back he found Sai excitedly sitting in front of his fish tank, totally mesmerized with the exotic specimen Ogata was rather proud of. Thus Ogatas willingness to ignore the wet path the other had left behind on his floor when he had crawled towards his destination.

Ogata placed the clothes over one of the other cussions and went to the kitchen range to make some hot tea, but never leaving the man out of his sight.

"So, I suggest we should introduce ourselves." He stated while pouring some water into a kettle. Apart from a very faint and distracted noise, he interpreted as consens, there was no reply. Ogata rose an eyebrow. As his guest made no attempt to introduce himself first, the blond go player finished his task and came back into the living room, waiting for the watr to boil. He sat down in one of the chairs near the tank and tried again.

"Well then, I guess I will make the start. My name is Seiji Ogata." Now imagine his surprise when this man he had never ever met before in his life, tapped his finger against the glass of the tank and said with a smile, that was directed towards a fish in rainbow colour "I know."

"Excuse me?" Ogata gave up his casual position and leaned forward with astonishment and confusion. This person surely never ceased to take him offguard. "How would you know that? As far as I know we never met before."

This seemed to finally catch the mans attention, as he turned around rather abrupt, looking no less startled. "I-I mean, I know because I- I´ve seen you in the – what was it called-… newspapers, I think…" To Sai it sounded more of a question than an explanation but it seemed to satisfy Ogata enough for him to relax a bit. Well, it wasn´t like Ogata was a celebrity outside the go-world, but truth be told he was a bit flattered and it wasn´t unusual that even regular newspaper published reports about important go matches once in a while.

Seeing Ogata buying his rather shady excuse, Sai felt a bit more at ease too and scoldet himself for getting distracted. Such a slip up was unexcusable! He just wished he´d had never left the house. Hikaru must be back by now and worried sick about his whereabouts…

"So, may I ask you to tell me your name?" There it was again, that risen eyebrow and that piercing gaze that made Sai all the more nervous. "But of course! Please excuse my inattentiveness! My name is Fujiwara no…"

Oh good gods, he couldn´t tell the man his name was SAI! He needed a name, a name…! "Hikaru."

The moment the name slipped past his lips he could have cried, as this wasn´t any much better than his real name. But then it was the first one that came to mind…

Ogata however didn´t seem to find it strange, or at least he didn´t show it. "Well, that´s a nice name. It seems to be a popular name these days, too."

"Why thank you." Sai cast his look downwards to avoid eye contact, blood rushing into his cheeks. He detested lying, and therefore wasn´t very good at it. Nervously kneading his clothes with long, elegant fingers, he glanced up through still wet hair, half expecting to be found out. Fortunately his worries were redundant as Ogata simply mistook his blushing for a shy (and kind of cute) attitude.

"Well then Mr. Fujiwara, I´d suggest you may change into something less drenched."

As if to proof his point, a sneeze escaped the other mans lithe body.

Leaving his comfortable position on the couch, Ogata walked towards Sai and helped him up. Toghether they stumpled to the bathroom where the blonde go-player placed his guest on the closed toilet seat and went back to the living room to get his clothes.

"Call me when you´re done, so I can have a look at your ankle."

Sai only nodded, clutching his new clothes tightly to his chest. After Ogata had finally left, his shoulders slumped down and a light shuddering rocked his whole body.

Eventually the effects of the shock of being lost in a city he wasn´t familiar with, being hit by a car, realising that he had been hit by ** Seiji Ogatas **car and staggering through a highly risky conversation with aforementioned man kicked in and Sai silently weeped with a hand pressed to his mouth. After a view minutes though, he wipped his eyes, sniveled a last time and forced himself to calm down and face the situation at hand. It was only his own fault that he had ended up like he did and now there was no use in regretting that he hadn´t listened to Hikaru.

Hikaru… He had to get out of here and go back as soon as possible.

Glancing at the clothes Ogata had amply provided, Sai finally peeled himself out of his wet shirt. Rubbing his smooth chest with a towel Ogata had also handed him, he changed into the lilac, tight fitting shirt. Getting out of his soaked trousers proofed to be a bit of a challenge and Sai winced when he twisted his already bruised and aching ankle again as he pulled off his shoes and socks. Fortunately, Ogata was a foreseeing man and had given him rather loose and wide trousers, so putting them on was less more troublesome than undressing. Still he needed quite a few minutes and by the time he was done, a rapping sound came from the door.

"You alright in there?"

"Y-Yes, just a moment please." Sai hurriedly wipped his face again to get rid of all traces that would indicate that he had been crying and wrapped the towel around his drenched hair.

"Come in please."

Ogata entered the bathroom and quietly took in the appearance of his guest. He appeared to have been crying, his eyes all puffy and red, and he generally didn´t look too comfortable, but then Ogata thought that he wouldn´t feel any different if he´d be sitting in a strangers bathroom with probably severe injuries. Fujiwara must feel extremely vulnerable. Not showing any of his sympathy on his stoic face, Ogata bent down and pushed his glasses up his nose, looking very professional. "Let´s have a look at your ankle."

Sai bit his lip when Ogata carefully lifted the end of his trousers and quick fingers examined the state of his unfortunate foot. Though Ogata really was canny it still did hurt and Sai couldn´t help but flinch.

Ogata didn´t do so much as cocking an eyebrow and finally set down Sais foot on the cold tiled floor with a reliefed sigh. He wasn´t a medic, but from what he had seen he was pretty sure that it wasn´t broken. Sure, Fujiwaras ankle was bruised and swollen, building a stark contrast to the rest of his smooth, white and impossible long leg (by the way a thought, Ogata choose to ignore, as well as the fact that the man in front of him obviously wasn´t wearing any underwear. The wet cloth lay together with a pile of other soaked clothes next to his bathtub and Ogata sure as hell hadn´t given the man any of _his_ underwear. There were certain limits to hospitality.). But as it seemed, it was only sprained, nothing that a few days of rest couldn´t handle.

Sai eagerly observed the other males work and despite the fact that he wasn´t to keen on being exposed and touched by a stranger and being in pain, he felt strangely at ease and nearly safe as Ogatas dextrous fingers ghosted over his bruised flesh.

When Ogata looked up at him over the brim of his glasses and told him in that cool, solemn voice of his that his ankle was 'only' sprained, Sai could have cried from joy. But he didn´t, of course. He had cried enough for one day as it was and his eyes already felt dry, not to mention the headache he´d have to deal with.

Seeing Fujiwaras expression change from nervous and anxious to reliefed and almost happy, Ogata had to withstand the urge to shake his head and mimic his smile. Really, that mans mood changes were worse than those of a PMS-ing womans, and the strangest thing was that he didn´t seem to care about exposing his feelings so openly to the public. One might have suspected him of being naïve, but Ogata couldn´t help but feel, that this wasn´t quite it. Averting his gaze from his guest, the blond go-player rose to his feet and turned towards a cupboard where he rummaged through, finally exposing a hair dryer. Sai, who had curiously eyed him, lit up when Ogata handed him the aformentioned item.

"Oh, I know that! What a marvelous hair dryer!" Fujiwara clasped his hands together in excitement. From all the new technological inventions he had witnessed the past days, personally he liked the hair dryer best. It was such a faciliation to have ones hair blown dry in an instant, instead of having to wait for hours until it dried by air. Especially when ones name was Sai and ones hair therefor was ridiculously long.

Ogata tossed him a strange look when handing over the dryer. He had never met someone who got all worked up over such a simple thing and seeing Sai cheerfully fumble with his hair dryer, sprained ankle all forgotten, he said. "Well then. I´ll be back when you´re done. Take your time and have fun."

"Hmhm." Sai nodded enthusiastically, still occupied with the item and completely failed to notice the sarcastic undertone in the others voice.

Ogatas eyebrow rose up once more, but he refrained from making another comment and left the bathroom. He really needed his cigarette now.

--

Review please?


	8. Chapter 8

Hi there again! First off: thank you so very much for all the reviews! It is so very motivating, hence I update although I really, really REALLY should start to learn for my tests...

So, here ou go:

--

After some tea and three cigarettes in a row, Ogata did indeed feel much better, and was up to another round of 'Hikaru'.

He didn´t know what it was with the man, but he had a strange feeling about him. Not entirely in a negative way, mind you, but he had never met someone like him before. And he sure had gotten to know _strange_ people in his life, not only amongst his fellow go comrades… Maybe it was just his rather girly, vulnerable appearance, or his somewhat naïve personality and strange behaviour, but 'Hikaru' didn´t seem to fit into the modern city life somehow. Or maybe it was just that always whenever he thought of 'Hikaru', he authomatically had a picture of a loud-mouthed, energetic teenager in his mind who knew exactly what he wanted and how he got it.

Ogata pinched the bridge of his nose and then stood to see if his guest was done drying his hair. When he entered the bathroom Sai was about to put away the dryer, and looked up at the man with large, fathomless eyes. Ogata had to silently admit that his guest had really very nice, flowing, soft looking hair…

"Is something wrong?"

Breaking away from the sight, Ogata ignored the light frown on Sais face and cleared his throat.

"No, I´m fine. Are you ready to move?"

Sai nodded, albeit hesitantly, and looped his arm around the offered shoulder. Slowly they stumbled back to the living room, when suddenly the lavender haired man froze.

Ogata cocked an eyebrow in slight annoyance, but stopped nontheless.

What was it now?

Could it be that 'Hikaru' had yet found another oh-so-exciting everyday technical device he intended to fully explore.

The vacuum cleaner this time maybe?

Repressing the urge to groan, Ogata followed his guests line of view and his eyebrow rose even a little higher when he noticed the go board that was placed in his home office. Now that could prove to be a surprising change for the better.

Since Sai just kept staring at the board, Ogata took it up to himself to inquire on the sudden halt.

"Do you, by any chance, play go?"

Not that he expected too much out of the man who didn´t even seem to know about elevators. But recently Ogata had become just a tiny little bit bored with the common go world. Sure, Hikaru Shindo and Akira Toya, along with some others, seemed to be promising, but they were still a few years away from becoming serious rivals for him. And his other options consisted of old, vicious geezers…

He didn´t know when a game had really, truly excited him, since the mysterious online player SAI had vanished.

This was so sad...

His train of thoughts was painfully interrupted when pointy fingers dug into his shoulders and wrest a hiss from him. That finally seemed to pull Sai out of his own revery, as he blushed and hurriedly let loose, mumbling "N-no. I´m not playing."

"I see." Ogata tried to not let his disappointment show in his voice and they continued their way into the living room.

Sai bit his lip, hoping Ogata would mistake it for exertion, since hopping on one foot wasn´t exactly like a walk in the park. But the truth was, that the former ghost had to put up everything he had to not drag the man into the bureau and force him to play a game. Or several hundred.

It was just so very unfair!!

Here he was, finally with a suitable rival, but he was as far away from his goal as a sardine from water in a desert. Why, just why, did it have to turn out like this! How was he supposed to obtain then hand of god loke this?!

Panting, as he felt now truly exhausted, Sai elegantly fell down on his cushion and just prayed that Ogata would have mercy and drive him back home as soon as possible.

The other man didn´t seem too eager to have him in his flat for a very long time to come either, though he sat down on the couch again after he had gathered Sais drenched clothes and had put them in a black sports bag.

"Well, Mister Fujiwara, I´m sure you want to go home soon and I don´t want to steal much more of your time either."

Ogata finally declared, rising Sais hopes and making him look up in relief.

"But I´m afraid we still have to deal with some insurance matters here-"

Sais head dropped spectacularly and Ogata could have sworn he heard an almost desperate groan.

"Well, well, I don´t think it will be too bad."

He tried to soothe the other man. Somehow he didn´t like seeing him that miserable. Which astonished Ogata himself, since he wasn´t known for being a very emphatic person and had, in fact, never been. Shoving those distracting and unreasonable thoughts aside, Ogata pushed his glasses up, and tried again in that distanced voice of his. "I´m sure we can get over with this rather fast."

Sai looked up again with big, teary eyes and asked "But why do we have to do this? You assured me that I´m fine and I believe you!"

Ogata stared blankly at his guest for several seconds, before it slowly dawned on him that there was the ridiculous chance that 'Hikaru' _didn´t know what an insurance was! _

Sai on the other hand seemed to get a little nervous from the lack of an answer and shifted uncomfortably in his chair. He hadn´t said anything stupid now, had he?

"Well…" Ogata had finally managed to gather himself together and folded his hands in his lap with a straight face. He didn´t really need that right now. He really, _really_ didn´t.

"I guess you are right. It isn´t a serious injury anyways and my care didn´t even get a scratch." The last point being the initial reason why he had brought up the 'insurance-matter' at all, for there _had_ been a little scratch on his precious car. But thinking about it now, he´d rather pay for it himself than having to deal with the unpredictable mess that might came rolling over him if he dug further into 'Hikarus ' affairs.

Some might call him an egoistic asshole (and he had heard _that_ one often enough from his former girlfriends), and he wouldn´t even deny it, but right now he didn´t care. He had to get rid of the man.

At least Sai seemed to look much happier after Ogatas decision, and when the man got up to help him up from the floor, the lavender haired man had a hard time to conceal his immense relief.

"Where shall I drop you?" the blonde go player asked by the way, which was followed by the thought 'OH PLEASE not again!' when he saw the crestfallen look on Sais face. His worries were put to rest quickly though, when Sai remembered a place, from where he could make his way back to Hikarus house without unintentionally telling Ogata where he was residing.

He told Ogata about that certain 'sho-pping arcade' and the blond man grabbed for his bag with the clothes without any further question.

Back in the car, Ogata finally couldn´t resist the urge to ask another few question. Though he knew he shouldn´t, it was too tempting and then Ogata sometimes loved the risk…

"So, Mr. Fujiwara, do I assume correctly that you are not from around here?"

Sai grimaced for a nanosecond. Why couldn´t the man just leave him alone?

"Well, no."

He stretched the last word in a pained fashion and hoped that Ogata would take the bait and shut up. For a well mannered person as Sai it was unthinkable to offend the man directly by refusing to answer his questions. More so after he had treated his wounds and provided him with dry clothes.

Ogata however either didn´t notice the silent plea or didn't want to. With a slightly sadistic expression he took a corner and asked interested "Oh? So where are you from?"

Sai dug his nails into his palms. "I´m… from abroad." He couldn´t think of anything better right now.

"Really? I could have sworn you are from Japan for your japanese is flawless, if a little old fashioned if I dare say so. And you have a japanese name too." Ogata mused, stopping the car in front of a red traffic light. Sai could have sworn he saw him smirking.

"Why thank you. My ancestors came from Japan and they always felt very devoted to their homecountry."

Sai had loosened his grib and looked at Ogata in a suddenly very calm manner. Two could play that game, and after he had found his inner equilibrium again, Sai felt a lot more confident. After all this wasn´t much different from go. It was a battle where you had to think ahead carefully and think up strategies, something he was a master at. A master with 1000 years of experience. Though he didn´t know if he would be able to attack, Sai was pretty sure that he could now stand his ground against Ogata. At least for the rest of the ride.

Ogata on the other hand didn´t fail to notice the change in the other man and the now almost predatory, expectant aura that engulfed him.

The whining, sappy cutie (he hadn´just thought that, had he?) was replaced by a serious, calm young man. Someone, Ogata might not want to provoke, someone who knew how to play the game. Someone with dignity, pride and a right for respect. Someone who invoked a familiar feeling in him. Though the blond go player could put his finger on it…

"I see." He finished the discussion and finally Sai withdraw his piercing gaze, that seemed to see right through Ogatas very soul.

Still, he wondered what country Sai could come from where they didn´t even know hair dryers… At least he didn´t have to worry about the man´s well being (not that he had before. Well, not much, that is…), since he seemed to be perfectly capable of taking care of himself when it came down to it.

Suddenly he was drawn out of his musings again when Sai shrieked next to him and repeatedly poked him into his shoulder reproachfully: "You missed it!"

"Alright, alright." Ogata tried to calm down the huffing man, now all happy-go-(un)lucky again whilst avoiding several pedestrians and other cars. Meanwhile at least the rain had stopped, and when the blond go player parked the car and helped the other man out of his seat, the whole incident seemed almost ridiculous.

Thrusting an old crutch into Sais long fingers (Ogata had found it remaining in his bedroom from the time when he´d had a broken leg) he asked him one last time if he felt alright. Sai nodded and took the bag with his clothes in his free hand, promising he would return Ogatas clothes once they had been washed. Ogata just made an approving noice, silently suspecting that he would never see them again.

Sai thanked him sincerely for his efforts once again, making Ogata slightly uncomfortable as it also had been partially his fault. Hence he shouldn´t be thanked, and after all, he hadn´t done much. Except for getting rid of Sai as soon as he could. Ignoring the nagging of his technically non-existent concious, Ogata got back behind his wheel. And after a last glance at the struggling, strange man from his driving mirror, the blond go player hit the gas and quickly drove back to his apartment.

--

That´s been a rather long chapter for me, hasn´t it? Anyway, several people asked me if this story takes place after the Hokuto cup. Now I´m ashamed to admit, that I hadn´t time until now to wtach that particular episode. So I have no idea, if my story would conflict with anythig that happened in the movie if I´d say yes... But I´d say yes. (if it doesn´t fit in, please tell me!! I promise I´ll watch it as soon as I can!).

I also noticed that I made several spelling errors, which, I think, is rather annoying and disturbs the reading flow. I´m sorry, since my english isn´t flawless when I write stories mainly in the middle of the night... So please feel free to tell me so I can correct them, I´d really appreciate that (or maybe I should just get me a beta reader... anyone interested?).

Also, I´m sorry that there is still no reunion with Hikaru, but since this actually is a Ogata/Sai story, I felt that they should spent some time together... And at though they didn´t fell in love at first sight, they also don´t hate each other. That´s something, I´d say. Or maybe Ogatas just being bitchy and Sai´s swamped, not the best premises for a romance. But. The last word hasn´t been spoken yet.

Review please?

EDIT: thanks for pointing out the akira toya thing. (dunno how that could happen.) it´s fixed now!


	9. Reunion, the second

9

Sai staggered with much effort down the street. Apparently it seemed that he had underestimated the distance from the shopping arcade to Hikarus house quite a bit, but then he hadn´t considered that walking on crutches was such a difficult task. Panting, he stopped for a small break, and slowly regaining his breathing. After a few moments he felt much better again and looked ahead where he could already make out the frame of his destination, building a stark black contrast to the bright red evening sky. Sighing in relief, he re-adjusted his hold on the crutches and with a lot more enthusiasm than before, moved on. He couldn´t wait to see Hikaru again, surely the boy would be overwhelmed with joy to have his sensei back. At the thought of a happy, beaming Hikaru Sai flashed a bright smile himself.

Maybe they could still, despite the rather late hour play a few games, and he could probably have some of these delicious foreign noodles.

But more importantly… take care of another pressing business. Sai made a face and hurried a bit.Due to his long state of ghostly like- disembodines, Sai had, much to his dismay, forgotten that whatever he ate and drank had, at some point, to be given back to nature again, and he immensely regretted not having used Ogatas bathroom for _this_ matter.

Pressing his lips together, Sai finally made it through the Shindos garden and dragged himself up the stairs. With a relieved sigh he rapped at the door, which flew open just a few seconds later, to reveal the furious and red face of one Hikaru Shindo. Taken aback by the sheer force of the door banging open and the wild expression his student wore, Sai jumped a little, but despite the pain shooting up his leg, summoned a sunny smile to his face.

"Good evening. I´m back."

Whatever welcome he had expected, it certainly wasn´t the low, almost feral growl that emitted from the boys throat.

"You…!"

To tell the truth, the reunion Sai had imagined went something along the line of a hearty, big hug, much laughing and relief, maybe a little crying (definitely some crying from his side), but generally he had imagined a happy, cheerful athmosphere.

Not open hostility.

Therefor all he could produce in his confused state was an uncertain, hesitant "Hai?", before he was knocked down on the floor with an angry face hovering mere inches away from his own and enraged hisses being spit in his face.

"How dare you!"

Hard, little (well, not so little anymore) fists collided with Sais chest in a painfull rhythm, while the delicate man laid on the floor,unable to move and too shocked to react in any way, too. This had definitely not been what he had imagined!

"You, you… asshole!!"

Sai winced at the malice in the boys voice and his heart felt as if something had pierced right through it, but at least the insult had stirred something within him and he almost authomatically scolded in a stern voice. "Watch your language, young man!"

Hikaru however didn´t seem to be in the mood to take lessons concerning his articulation right now as he screamed back "Shut up!"

Taken aback again, Sais expression changed from a slightly scandalized to one of helplessness and hurt. At least Hikaru had stopped to beat him and was now straddling his chest, breathing harsh and eyes full of rage.

He stared down at the forlorn looking man underneath him, his hands tugging at said mans collar and breathed: "How dare you?!" again.

Sai didn´t know what to say, so he just pressed his lips toghether tightly and shiftlessly looked up at his friend. But he was under the impression that Hikaru didn´t expect him to answer anyway, for the boy continued his rant almost immediately in a shaking voice.

"How dare you leave me alone again?! How dare you run off and come back here like nothing happened?! I´ve had it with your damn selfishness! Who do you think you are?!"

The boy tugged at his collar harder, nearly screaming into Sais face now, but then he just laughed a bitter, chocking laugh "Oh, I forgot, of course. The great Sai, the genius go-player of our millenium, _of course_ can´t be _bothered _to occupy only just the tiniest little part of his wondrous brain to spare a thought for anything other than his friggin´ _go_! He can´t be expected to actually think about how _others_ might feel around him! How his _friends_ might feel! But oh then I forgot that the mighty Sai propably wouldn´t even consider such an insignificant, wretched looser such as myself, who didn´t even know to acknowledge his genius and didn´t let him play, a _friend_!"

Hikaru had dropped his head, face hidden by his bangs and his fists cramped around Sais shirt. The man stared wide-eyed at his friend, feeling miserable and guilty like never before in his very long existence.

Not even Shusakes death had left him feel that cold and bad. Out of instinct he reached out a hand, but didn´t quite dare to touch the still heaving youth.

Sai felt so very very terrible. He _knew_ that he had been repulsively egoistic, and despite his good intensions, had weighed down the boy with his endless demands and naggings. And now it seemed that the only person he really truly cared for and loved hated him! And he couldn´t even blame him, because it was all his own fault! But the worst was, that Hikaru sounded like _he_ actually blamed himself.

"Hikaru…"

The boy didn´t react to the shaking voice from beneath him, but he didn´t slap away Sais hand either. Instead, small droplets made contact with Sais face, making him briefly wondering if it had started raining again. But the sky was cloudless, and the droplets felt hot.

"Do you have any idea how I felt when you were suddenly gone, without so much as a word of farwell? Do you know what I´ve gone through after you left me? " Hikarus formerly enraged screams had dropped to a barely understandable, hoarse breathing.

"Do you have any idea how worried I was?!"

"I´m so sorry." Sai whispered, tears rolling down his own face, and finally wrapping his arms around Hikarus shaking shoulders, taking the boy without any resistance into a tight embrace. Being nestled into his friends very alive and present arms, something seemed to snap inside of him again and Hikaru started to weep and cry uncontrollably like a little child, clinging to the mans shirt and nearly riping it apart. Seeing his friend crying so hard, Sai couldn´t restrain himself either, though partially he cried from relieve that Hikaru didn´t abhore him, though he´d have deserved it, all right. And so they sat there in the fading evening light, wailing and blubbering, until eventually the tears run dry, and they went over to sobbing and hiccuping.

With red brimmed eyes, Hikaru finally wiped away some snot running down his nose with his sleave, looking at an equally puffy eyed Sai and demanded "I-I kn-know why I-I´m crying, bu-but why are you?"

Sai snuffled, bottom lip still quivering and answered "Be-because I-I´m su- such a ba-bad person, ma-making you a-all worried a-and because I-I am so- so sorry!"

He hiccupped again, looking all miserable and guilty that Hikaru had mercy and laid a reassuring hand on his shoulder, asserting his friend. "I-It´s okay now, I-I mi-might have overreacted a bi-bit."

With the other sleeve (the one without the snot stains) Hikaru wiped his eyes and donned a small, still a little lopsided smile to his face. Sai beamed at him and attempted to hug his Hikaru again, but the boy, suddenly very aware that they still were in front of the house, meaning practically _in public, _fled his friends display of affection with a slightly embarrassed, red face. It was a wonder his mother or the neighbours hadn´t already shown up, with all the commotion they had caused.

Seeing the crestfallen look on Sais face made him almost regret his hasty retreat.

"You know, it´s just… I´m almost 16 now, I´m a bit to old for hugs now…" He trailed off when he saw the pout forming on Sais lips. Sighing, and briefing himself that no one was looking, he wrapped his arms around the others torso for what was approximately a nanosecond, but certainly enough to replace the pout with a bright, happy smile. Shaking his head a little, Hikaru rose to his, a bit shaking, feet and turned around to help Sai up. Halfway the man cried out in pain and collapsed to the floor again, grinding his teeth.

Instantly worried, Hikaru knelt down beside him, a hand on Sais arm for support. "What´s wrong?"

It was then, that he saw the crutches, which had cluttered to the floor unnoticed when he´d assaulted Sai.

"I´m fine. It´s n-nothing serious." Sai breathed, sounding somewhat far from being 'fine'. Hence Hikarus frown deepened but before he could query what exactly it was that felt not serious, Sai informed him that he suffered from a, probably, sprained ankle. Hikaru blanched considerably at this, seeing that he had brutally attacked an injured person, and helped said person up again, this time grabbing for the crutches.

Once they had made it into Hikarus room (with a short detour to the bathroom, of course), the boy pressed his friend down onto the bed with the strict order to not move and went for a first aid kit. Sai didn´t protest much, as he was really tired and exhausted from all the crying and emotional abuse and didn´t feel like much more exercise anyway. When Hikaru came back from the bathroom and knelt down to check his ankle, he listened to Sais adventure tale. Hadn´t it all been so tragic, he would´ve laughed himself silly at Sais scandalized report on how unrefined and demanding young women these days behaved.

He didn´t feel like laughing anylonger however, when his friend came to the "let´s run poor Sai over with a car"-part, and he even nearly crushed Sais delicate, already pained ankle when the man revealed to him, who exactly the driver had been! Sais pained yelp made him loose his grip, but nontheless Hikaru stopped tending his patient and said with a worried, serious face: "I take it you ignored him and made a run for it!"

Sai tugged nervously at his sleeves, avoiding eyecontact and licked his lips. "Well… I intended to… but Mister Ogata insisted that I must come with him so that he could attend to my injuries…"

Hikarus face fell quite spectacular. "You… WHAT?"

"What was I to do? I was severely injured, I might could have died and it was raining and I was lost and soaked and frightened and hungry and in pain!" Sai defended himself, puffing his cheeks and looking slightly huffy. But not so much that his just recently re-established friendship with Hikaru was in any danger, of course! He just wanted to make his point.

"I can´t believe it. Seiji Ogata of _all people_!" Hikaru groaned, touching his forehead in a distressed manner.

"Mou… It wasn´t that _bad_. I didn´t tell him my name or that I am living with you, in fact I let him drive me to the shopping arcade, so he wouldn´t find out." Sai assured a _very_ sceptical Hikaru proudly. "Besides I think he isn´t such a bad person at all. He was very kind and complaisant. And polite. He took me to his home and nursed my injury and lend me some of his precious cloths. He even let me use his dryer!" Sai declared, as if this proofed that Ogata was Jesus reincarnated. Hikaru wasn´t impressed though.

"He hit you with his car." He stated dryly.

"It was an _accident_." the other felt the need to clarify, still unfazed by the hard facts.

"Still, it was the least he could´ve done, the bastard." Hikaru made sure to utter the last word quietly enough for Sai to not to hear it, seeing that his friend was quite sensitive where speaking manners were concerned. But since Hikaru wasn´t in the mood for an argument either he decided to not rip Sais little (or in this case: too big) heart apart and let him cling to his delusions. Sighing, he continued to carefully wrap the new bandage around Sais ankle. He would go down later and ask his mother for some ice in a bag, so they could cool it a little. It was already swollen and didn´t look very comfortable.

Sai, believing he had won the battle, made a satisfied face and let Hikaru take care of him. The rest of the evening was spent rather quiet. Sai told the rest of his story, with a special emphasis on how heroically he had withstood the temptation to expose himself and play a game with Ogata (on which Hikaru complimented him sincerely, becausing, knowing Sai, he had a pretty good idea just how much affort it had cost him).

Hikaru in return summarized what had happened to him after Sai had left him the first time, half expecting the other man would strangle him for even _thinking _to quit go, but strangely the former ghost just smiled at him sadly and then told him how proud he was having Hikaru as a student. Thereupon Hikaru felt somewhat awkward, but not in a bad way, and changed the subject, hiding his shining eyes behind his bangs. Instead he spoke at great length about how he had come home from school today, only to find Sai being missing _again _and how he had searched the whole neighboorhood twice, even contemplating to call the police. To his, Hikaru had to admit, slightly sadistic satisfaction, Sai made a miserable face again, but when the mans bottom lip suspiciously quivered and his eyes shone with yet unshead tears, Hikaru hurried to assure him that everything was alright now. After dinner, which Hikaru had never before seen being wolved down so decent and well-mannered, and the difficult task of changing into pyjamas, they finally called it a night (yes, without playing go).

* * *

I´m sorry for the long delay _again. _But this was quite a difficult chapter, or so I think...

I´m aware that some might think their reunion was a bit sappy and unnecessarily emotional, but! I have an excuse: I imagined that, being together with someone 24/7 for a long time and then suddenly without a warning ripped apart must be quite a shocking experience. It is like a very close friend or family member dying. And in the anime and manga Hikaru was under some serious emotional stress, I think. Now imagine, this dear, deceased person suddenly reappears, just after you have, to some extent gotten over it.

And THEN imagine, that person is gone again.

See? :)

review please?

* * *


	10. Chapter 10

**I bet you didn´t think I would update so soon ;)**

10

Sai heaved a sigh and adjusted the laptop on his knees. Rubbing his tired eyes, he gazed outside the window, needing to look somewhere else than the flickering screen.

It was raining again, thick droplets splashing against the glass, lazily trailing down the smooth surface. It shouldn´t have been much of a problem for the lilac haired man, since he still had to rest due to his (though almost completely recovered) foot, but the constant downpour and the dark clouded sky made him feel a little depressed. And on top of that, Hikaru couldn´t keep him company this afternoon since he had important matters to take care of. Mainly playing go with his fellow go associates. Although the boy tried to spare as much time for him as he could, he still had his responsibilities, for which Sai envied him a little.

But they had at least three games every evening and for the day, Hikaru had provided him with his brand new computer. Sai let his gaze drift back to the aformentioned item, silently marveling at the wondrous new technology. The screen showed a rudimentary go board and a half played game, but Sai wasn´t in a hurry, since his competitor wasn´t in a rush either. When Hikaru had him introduced to the computer for the first time, Sai had been somewhat wary, since the thing looked so delicate and he was still convinced that there was something odd and transcendental there. After all, Hikaru hadn´t been able to proof to him that the thing _wasn´t_ something magical and after the tenth time the boy had even given up on telling Sai that he didn´t need to bow down to his laptop and pray to the god of the 'Mac' everytime he turned the bloody thing on.

On another note Hikaru had had the time of his life, showing Sai how to use the thing and laughing at Sais avrious stupid faces and fearful exclaims, or the fact, that Sai tended to converse with the machine, telling it earnestly how marvellous and impressiv it was. Apart from several basic functions however, Sai didn´t understand anything about that 'computer' but he didn´t mind, since the only thing he really needed to know was how to start the go-programm.

Initially Sai had thought that he would be playing through the internet with real players as they had done before. But Hikaru had objected, telling him that his reappearance on the net would definitely cause unnecessary commotion and what was even more significant: trouble for Hikaru. By now, the furore about 'sai' had finally died down a bit, but as Hikaru had told Sai, Ogata still eyed his every move, making witty comments every so often in the hope of catching Hikaru off-guard, so that he might reveal something about said mysterious netplayer.

Though Sai had fully understood and respected Hikarus decision, he still felt a little heart broken. He´d hoped that he could maybe have a rematch with certain people, but as it was, chances weren´t that good. At least for now until they had figured out something, or so Hikaru had told him. Maybe he should have taken the chance and played the game with Ogata. At least to him the man seemed fairly decent,despite Hikarus claims that he was far from that...

Though Ogata _had _been very polite and suave, though a bit teasing, but Sai hadn´t minded at all. To tell the truth, when he thought back on it, it hadn´t been _that _bad, and he was sure they would have gotten along rather well, if it just hadn´t been for the circumstances. They could have played such _wonderful_ games…

But he was playing against the computer now, which wasn´t _that_ bad either. Even more so since Sai was convinced that he indeed played against a god, and what better way to obtain the hand of god than actually play against one? Though the former spirit suspected that he wasn´t exactly playing against a _go_-god, for he had beaten the computer ten times out of ten. Hikaru had promissed to buy a better programm. What a world, Sai thought dreamily, where one only needed to go to the next supermarket to buy the favor of a god. What lenghts had they gone through during his lifetime!

A soft knocking draw his attention back to reality and he answered with a friendly "Come in please."

Hikarus mother entered the room with a tray of food, which she placed on the nightstand. Despite her former distrust and scepsis she had come to grow rather fond of the young man currently residing with them. He was unusually polite, honest and kind, always worried to not cause her any inconveniences.

Since she tended to be alone at home most of the time, it was a pleasant change of pace, so Mrs. Shindo didn´t have any objections when Hikaru had declared that Sai would be staying with them for a while. The young man had repeatedly thanked her for her graciousness and promised to make up for it and help her with the household as best as he could. After she had seen him peel potatoes (a task he could do in a sitting position without straining his injured foot) and nearly cut off his thumb, she had indulgently pried the peeler out of his hand and they had settled for go-lessons instead. Sai took obvious pleasure teaching her the basics of go and Mrs. Shindo came to understand the world her son was now living in a little better. Besides, they had pleasant conversations, even though she wondered sometimes how Sai could be so oblivious to current political and other important matters. Nevermind, she had taken it upon her to inform him and he was a great listener and quick learner. So much so that he by now knew more about certain actors and actresses lifes than his own.

Setting the computer aside, Sai had his meal, all the while making little delighted noises and compliments and Mrs. Shindo prepared the go board.

They were in the middle of another session when the door was opened with a bang and Hikaru came in. He threw his bag into a corner (ignoring his mothers and Sais scolding glares), and ushered his mother out of the room.

"You are early today, Hikaru." Sai wondered, head tilted in question.

"Yep. Your gods listened to my prayers and flooded the school toilets. Hence: no more classes for me today. And Akira got sick, so we´re not playing either today." Hikaru flashed him a toothy grin.

"Don´t be silly Hikaru, gods wouldn´t do such an awful thing." Sai chided, very cocksure.

"But they do make my pc crash out of the blue." Hikaru deadpaned, arms crossed over his chest. Sai blushed furiously "I told you that wasn´t me! And I soothed the gods anger with especially long and intensive prayers afterwards!"

Hikaru just snorted and turned to search for something in a pile of various things on his commode. "Meanie!" Sai pouted but quickly forgot about his half hearted sulking since he was far more interested in what Hikaru was doing, anyway. Voicing his question, he was answered with a victorious grin when Hikaru faced him again, holding a small black bag in his hand triumphantly. "Hehe!"

"Oh, what´s this?" Sai hoped it was something fun, sitting around in that sticky little room was slowly wearing at his normally indulgant and cheerful self. Hopefully it had something to do with go!

"This" Hikaru proudly stated "is my hard earned first fee!"

"Oh." made Sai reverentially, though he wasn´t sure what the proper reaction should have been.

"Hehe." Hikarus grin became even wider as he marched back to his bag.

Sai remained on the bed, waiting patiently for Hikaru to explain himself. The boy crouched down to get his jacket and cast a sideglance towards the bed. "What are you waiting for, snail. Get up and get ready."

"Me?" astonished, the lilac haired man pointed at himself.

"No, the spirit sitting next to you."

"Ehhh?!" Hikaru rolled his eyes at the sudden jump Sai made from the bed, but inwardly laughed his as off. Sai was so easy to fool! Sometimes it was hard to believe that somewhere inside of him a genius was hiding. Hearing the mischievous snicker, Sai huffed indignantly. "Mou, Hikaruuuu… Stop teasing me. I´m an injured person here."

"It´s your fault for being so credulous." Hikaru shrugged. "Besides, you can´t be that injured after _that_ stunt."

Sai stuck out his bottom lip again, mumbling something about 'respect for the elderly' but got ready nontheless. He still had to depend on Mr Shindos old wardrobe, since he refused to, again, wear the clothes Ogata had given to him. Technically they weren´t his, so he wouldn´t wear them down. Hikaru had tried to convince him that Ogata surely wouldn´t mind and that it wasn´t like he could give him back to the man anyways (that was, not without raising suspicion) but Sai had remained strict.

So he was wearing an old jeans and a blue washed out shirt, together with a slightly too big green jacked.

After a critical glance outside the window, Sai pulled at Hikarus sleeve and frowned. "Nee, Hikaru, it´s still raining outside…"

Hikaru followed his gaze, then shrugged. "We´ll take an umbrella with us. Besides, we won´t be outside most of the time anyway, so it doesn´t really matter. Your foot okay?"

Sai carefully put some weight on his critical ankle and nodded. It was as good as healed, he only had rested it for good measure, anyway.

"Alright!" Hikaru exclaimed in high spirit, dragging Sai behind him and grabbing for an umbrella on his way out.

"W-wait! Where are we going anyway?"

Not bothering to slow down, the boy turned his neck, grinning at him."Shopping."

* * *

**Hey there again! First I´d like to thank everyone who reviewed, it keeps me motivated and makes me really happy! **

**So: thank you!  
**

**But it seems that due to the long breakes I took between the chapters many readers have become uninterested and abandoned my fic:(**

**Thus I shall promise to update more frequently, and since I got my lazy butt off this week and the next 4 chapters are already written, I´m positive that I can keep my promise.**

**That is, if anyone still wants to read it?**

**next chapter: What wondrous things will befall our friends on their shopping trip, and what is Ogata doing all day long?!**


	11. I m singing in the rain not

**Another update... It´s not as long as before but since the updates will be more frequent I guess that´s okay...**

**Enjoy!**

11

_Splash!_

Seiji Ogata, stopped, a pissed look on his face. It wasn´t enough that it was pouring down at him from _above, _no, he had to pick up every bloody puddle that had decided to bother him and lie on his way, too! Mentally cursing, but being far too well-mannered to do so audibly, he shook of the droplets from his brandnew, very expensive leather boots. Of course one could have questioned what he was doing here on a rainy day anyways, but he would have prefered to dismiss the question with an annoyed wave of his hand.

Obviously he was walking through a shopping arcade, thus one could have assumed that he was here to actually _shop_. But the inevitable, and very warranted query that would have followed would also have made him quite uneasy, because it would have dugged up thoughts, he would have rather not have. Said question would have been, why he had of all things, chosen _this_ arcade for his 'shopping' trip, because this one was quite a distance away from his apartment and there were certainly other options he could have chosen from. Not to mention that he didn´t really _need_ anything right now, so shopping was a rather shady excuse.

Pushing his glasses up his nose, Ogata almost stubbornly pressed his lips in a thin vexatious line, and continued his walk, one hand casually tugged in his pocket.

After all, it wasn´t like he was unreasonably checking out the area for a certain airheaded young man on crutches.

Right, as if a person with a sprained ankle would walk around in this inclement weather.

Though by now, the injury should have healed, Ogata pointet out to himself. But it didn´t really matter, since he wasn´t looking for anything anyway and most certainly not for 'Hikaru'. And even if he would have, wich he did not, it would have only been because the man still owned him his cloths back (he had really adored that shirt!), and because Ogata might have been only _slightly_ worried about the mans condition. But of course only, because he didn´t want to get into trouble with his insurance, not because of some personal interest, far from it!

All he wanted was taking a stroll in the rain, go window-shopping for a bit and relax.

Another water filled pothole took him offguard, and the blond go player grinded his teeth. If this continued like this, he might as well really have to look for new shoes.

Just why had this to be an arcade without a decent roof?! It was common sense that people would stay away from the delight that was shopping (yeah, right…) when they were all soaked and pissed! Nearly despairing due to the peoples idiocy, Ogata glared in his best "don´t mess with me"- manner at the innocence feigning puddle and continued his way, snorting.

At least he had taken an umbrella with him, so that the damage that could be done to his clothes was restricted…

…

This was ridiculous.

He should turn on his heels, head back to his car and drive home to his warm, cozy apartment. It wasn´t as if he didn´t have to do other things. And what were the chances that he met this Hikaru-person anyway? Coming to think of it…

Didn´t Shindo live around here somewhere, too? The boy had behaved oddly nervous in his presence lately…

Whatever. Ogata shrugged the thought of and darkly looked at the street as far has it was possible in the heavy rain. Alright, he would give up, he decided with some reluctant resignation, for he wasn´t someone to accept loss so easily. But apart from anything else he would only catch a cold if he continued wandering around like this. Forget the shirt, he would just, since he was here anyways, visit this shop he had past earlier, get a new one and forget about the whole think. Mildly more placid, the go player turned and walked back, this time successfully avoiding all the vicious puddles.

In front of the shop he closed his umbrella with a snap, and entered the slightly crowded store. It wasn´t one of the shutters he would normally go to, the target group was about ten years younger than he was (which was pointed very effectively out at him by the 'hip' music that instantly tortured his poor ears upon entering), but he beared with it. He just needed a plain shirt, not an entire evening attire.

Undetered by the odd look the gum chewing salesgirl shot him from the counter, he thrusted himself through the pillars full of clothes. Maybe he should get this over with fast, too. He wasn´t in the mood for being declared an old man by a brat that seemed to have overcome puberty just _very_ recently. Grabbing for a lavender coloured shirt that looked roughly his size, Ogata was about to turn around and march to the counter with a confident expression, but was hindered from doing so by a soft body he bumped into.

"Ouch…"

"Oh, excuse me, I didn- You?!" startled, Ogata looked at an equally surprised, long haired young man with a formerly sprained angle, who delicately held his harassed nose. Before 'Hikaru' could even start to reply however, he was interrupted by the impatient voice of one Hikaru Shindoe. "Hey have you picked something already, Sai?!"

It was followed by a breathless "Oh shit." when the teen appeared from the dressing room and found himself confronted with a distraught Sai but more importantly: an utterly shattered Seiji Ogata.

* * *

Poor Hikaru just doesn´t have any luck

I´m wondering what´s going to happen next... cough**  
**

**next chapter: **... Right, as if I´m going to spoil _that_ now, after the hard effort I put on the line to create a decent cliffy...

You´ll just have to review and make me put up the next chapter soon ;)

**Thanks lynixe, Frequency and Pure Shikon, who actually took the time to review. I really appreciate it!**


	12. saisaisaisaisaisaisaisai

**Okay, here we go again... Thanks to everyone who reviewed. And if someone would like to beta this thing, feel free to pm me!  
**

**Enjoy!**

13

"Sai?!" the blond haired go player echoed in a most unbelieving, traumatized voice, eyes as big as saucers behind his glasses. Hadn´t it all been so VERY problematic, Hikaru would have marveled at the fact, that someone or something had been able to crash the unshaking, ever so placid and cool Seiji Ogata. But really, if THIS wasn´t the worst case scenario, Hikaru didn´t know what was. And Sai wasn´t much of a help either, standing there, nibbling nervously at the pullover he had wanted to try on. He tried to avoid eyecontact with Ogata, who in return pierced him with his unnerved, infidel stare, and looked desperately to Hikaru for help. The boy recovered rather fast from the shock and within a minute was next to his friend, lugging him away from the other man a little.

"Ah, Mr. Ogata, what a…pleasant surprise!" he scratched his head sheepishly and managed a laugh that had been intended to sound cheerful but came out rather hollow.

Ogata stared at him with that pervasive eyes of his, though he made the impression as if he didn´t really see the boy.

"Sai?" he repeated again, the shirt dangling forgotten from his arm. His sharp gaze shifted back to the man he had hitherto known as 'Hikaru', and who was looking back at him with big, round, intimidated eyes, blinking innocently. Ogatas ears were torn by a shrill ringing that only he could hear and his heart seemed to have stopped beating altoghether. It couldn´t be, could it? This airheaded, naiv young man couldn´t be…could he? Could it really be possible that this was the legendary internet player, the one who had beaten Toya Meijin? But he was with the blond haired brat, he had called himself 'Hikaru' and the real Hikaru had just actually called him _Sai_!

"Ah, that´s just… ahaha" Hikaru laughed nervously, feverishly trying to think a plausible way out of this mess. "I-I know what you are thinking, but really, this isn´t like it seems…" he trailed of with a wave of his hand and tried to look convincing. Sai frowned at him for Hikarus made a very lame impression on him, receiving a nudge in the rips and an angry glare from his friend. Supressing a yelp, Sai flashed his most polite smile and waved his hand a little at the bespectacled blond man "Hello there."

Ignoring the lilac haired man completely, what earned him a huffy pout, Ogata asked sharply, scepticism leeking from his voice with every word. "Is that so. So, what´s your explanation then?"

He crossed his arms over his chest in a demanding manner, daring the boy to lie at him.

Hikaru unconciously licked his lips, telling himself to not back away. He couldn´t afford to be intimidated. He briefly wondered if there was a way to get out of this left.

The music boomed out of the speakers, unimpressed by the tense silence that had settled between the three customers, until Hikaru opened his mouth again. "This is just a friend of mine who came to visit, and I wanted to show him around…" He licked his lips again. Ogata gazed down at him unfazed, waiting impatiently for him to end his story. "And well, actually I didn´t mean Sai but, S.I. for self-injury,it´s an insider, you know because he´s always hurting himself. Or better: is getting hurted." A challenging look was thrown at the other go player with the very unlikely hope he could change the subject, and with his accusation of Ogata injuring Sai, somehow distract the entire matter to another. Unfortunatly Ogata didn´t take the bait, nor did he show any signs if he believed Hikarus rather, odd clarification. Face an impassive mask, he watched the brat cross his arms, mirroring his earlier actions and looking almost as stubborn as when he had one of his many quarrelings with Akira.

"So I take it that it is just a coincindence that both of you share the same name?" Ogata raised his trademark eyebrow. Shrugging his shoulders nonchalantly, Hikaru declared that it wasn´t his fault that his name was so popular.

"I see." Ogata adjusted his glasses, his face still an unreadable mask. "And am I assuming correctly that this friend of yours has no junctions with go whatsoever?"

"That´s right." Hikaru hastely flashed him his biggest grin, looking very confident, before Sai could say something stupid.

"Well then." Finally the blond haired man broke eyecontact, calmly folding his Shirt into a neat square. Hikaru inwardly heaved a sigh of relief and even Sai looked slightly less troubled, his worried face easing considerably (Really, Hikaru thought, he had to work on that nonexistent poker face of his. Well at least for the times, when they weren´t in the middle of a game.).

His premature feeling of victory was brutally crashed however, when Ogata finally looked up at them again and in a sly voice asked his best friend and teacher "Then you wouldn´t mind if we played a game, just for the fun of it, now would you? Incidently I happen to know a nice little café nearby that offers go boards to their visitors."

Startled, Sai licked his lips, casting a helpless look at Hikaru. "I-I guess not…?"

So not liking the smug smile on his superiours face, Hikaru protested stridently "Hey! I just told you he has nothing to do with anything go-related! Besides, he´s still injured because of _ someones _carelessness and we have to go now!" With that he grabbed for Sais arm and was about to get his friend out of the danger zone, when Ogata held up his hands in a calming manner, but a mischievous gleam remaining in his eyes as he soothingly said "Calm down. Please. I didn´t mean any offense.I´d just like to make up for the trouble I caused you, you don´t have to play with me. It´s just a tea then. And you probably want to rest a bit too, don´t you? " This made Sai stop in his tracks, since as the well mannered person he was, he couldn´t just bring himself to reject an apology, no matter the circumstances.

Hikaru, gratiously pulling at Sais arm hissed at the young man "Don´t let him fool you, he´s just a vicous, sly demon!"

"Hikaru!" Sai chided indignantly, then turned around and gracefully bowed his head at the other man, speaking softly. "Please don´t mention it anymore. It was as much as my fault, if not entirely. Of course we gratefully accept your invitation." While talking, he had grabbed the other boys head and pressed it into a very unvoluntary bow, ignoring Hikarus unhappy growling.

Smiling, Ogata shortly bowed as well, then made an inviting gesture towards the door of the shop and said politely "Oh no, please. You are not to blame. Let's say it was just an unlucky accident. Or a lucky one." At that Sai blushed a lovely shade of rose, and Hikarus growl became even more fierce. "Well, then. Let us go."

With a small smirk he led the other two outside the shop, and into the rain again.

* * *

**Ah, another not so long chapter... But the next one will be up soon (I think, depending on review response;))**

**I decided to 'review' reviews from now on, because it is only fair that when you are taking your time to talk to me and ask me questions, I´ll answer them. Or is it? **

**Anyway, lets start with reviews from the last chapter:**

**Pure Shikon:** Ah, I´m sorry. But I updated rather fast, didn´t I? And this time it isn´t as bad as before (with the cliffhanger, I mean), or so I hope...

**Frequency:** The whole 'when Sai is trying on some clothing, Ogata gets magically pushed into the changing room'-idea was soooo tempting!! But then, it would have totally clashed with the rest of the plot so... sadly it couldn´t happen :(

**Serilia:** I really don´t mind being spamed with reviews :D Hopefully the wait was worth it!

**hittocerebattosai:** Thanks for the nice review, I love them too!

**Anonymus:** I almost fear that it could get even worse;) Glad you liked it!

**soontobeonfanfiction:** I´m glad you found the length of the chapter just right! I intend to have them experience a romance, yes, and I am rather certain that it won´t be anything too explicit. If it would be though, I won´t be posting it here, but with a link on adff or something. So, no, no mature rated actions for ogata and sai here...

**Next chapter: What will they drink at the café? Will it ever stop raining? Why does poor Sai _still_ have no new clothes?  
**

**These, and other pressing questions will be answered in the next chapter! (maybe)**

**So... review please?**


	13. smokers are bad for your mental health

**So many thanks to my new and awesome beta Frequency for looking through this so fast!!**

**Enjoy!**

13

The smirk was still at his lips when they had settled down in a corner of a small, cozy café with polstered benches and a light, much more likeable, classic background music. They didn't make it here entirely unscathed, though, and a shivering Hikaru had grudgingly demanded hot tea as soon as they entered. While Ogata was sipping at his black coffee, Hikaru blew at his green tea, a stormy look on his face that put the weather outside to shame, the blond observed with mild amusement how 'Hikaru' flipped through the card, delight clearly visible in his face as he asked his friend from time to time enthusiastically what a frapuccino or espresso was. The kid grumpily mumbled something unintelligible, but Sai was seemingly undeterred. After a long pause of frowning, he declared that he wanted a hot chocolate. Since the waitress was nowhere in sight, Ogata offered to stop by the counter and deliver his order since he was on the way to get a pack of cigarette from the vendor, anyways. Sai smiled his thanks and told him that he would appreciate that.

As soon as Ogata was out of earshot, Hikaru grabbed his friend by the arm and hissed "Now´s the chance. Let´s make a run for it!" Whatever Ogata had said, Hikaru didn´t believe him one bit. True, on the way here the man had avoided the topic of Sai, only exchanging polite pleasantries and asking with something akin to worry, how ´Hikaru´ had been since the accident and if his ankle was alright now. But Hikaru wasn´t to let the man fool him. Knowing Ogata, the man had certainly something mean up his sleeve- it just wasn´t him to give up that easily. Bad thing was only that Sai didn´t seem to notice and had totally been ensnared in the sticky web of polite exchanges and fake worries. Therefore, he wasn´t too surprised when the lilac haired man graced him with a frown and told him sternly that it was impolite to leave after Mr. Ogata had so generously invited them, and that Hikaru shouldn´t always be so suspicious about people and instead trust them more. When Sai explained to him how _nice _Ogata was and that Hikaru should show more respect for his guardian, for he was so very lucky to have such a great mentor, the boy had a really hard time to restrain himself from giving the chatty former ghost a piece of _his_ mind regarding Ogata's character. Sometimes he just wanted to wrap his fingers around a certain genius go players throat and shake him mad.

The chance to leave went by too fast and when Ogata came back with a fresh package of cigarettes, Hikaru's mood had gone from bad to outright horrendous. "Something the matter?" The blond asked him with a raised eyebrow as he sat down on his chair next to Sai. "No," came the hostile reply. Refraining from commenting on that, Ogata turned to Sai and told him calmly that his drink would come soon. The next few minutes were spent with conversations about the bad weather, how Hikaru and 'Hikaru' had actually intended to buy some new clothes for 'Hikaru,' and how the lilac haired man didn´t seem to have been able to warm up to the style of what was offered in the shop they had met at. Sai told the other how happy he was that they had at last met again, so that Hikaru could give back the clothes he had borrowed from Ogata, while Ogata told him in return that it really wouldn't have been that much of a big deal if he hadn´t gotten his clothes back. Then the blond man told Sai again how worried he still had been after he had dropped the man at the arcade and how he, infact, had come here today for the slight chance of maybe meeting him again. That statement made the porcelain white skin of the delicate man heaten again, though Hikaru was fairly sure that Ogata only tried to hide is certainly ambitious motives with sugarcoated words. Though he wasn´t sure what the man was planning exactly, he knew that he had an incredibly bad feel feeling about this. And his intuition scarcely failed him.

The blond haired man had crossed his legs and was about to lit a cigarette when the waitress came with Sai´s chocolate and to Hikaru's utter horror, two bowls of stones and a small go board under her arm. She placed everything on the table and excused herself again. Hikaru's eyes flashed with fury. "What´s this?" he demanded heatedly, "I thought you said you would leave it alone."

"Calm down Shindo, now will you?" Ogata retorted cooly, taking a drag from his cig. "I just remembered that there was something I wanted to hear your opinion about."

"Oh really? Too bad I´m not in the mood." The boy defiantly folded his arms and demonstratively looked out of the window. Unfazed, Ogata began to place white and black stones onto the board, observing not the boy, but in his opinion, the undoubtly fake Hikaru from out of the corner of his eye. Said man seemed to appear only mildly and politely interested, but the blond didn't fail to notice the sharp edge that had crept into his eyes and the somewhat knowing gaze with which he followed every stone. Ogata's heart skipped a beat at that look and then started to pound faster than normal, but his face didn´t betray any signs of his excitement. Calmly he placed one stone after another, slowly but surely lying out a pattern of black and white, drawing the other man deeper and deeper into the battle on the board. When he was half done, Sai was so absorbed in the game, that he apparently forgot that, according to Hikaru, he actually didn´t have any knowledge about go at all and exclaimed happily, "Oh, that´s an interesting move."

Hikaru's head snapped back from the window to Sai in bewilderment and Ogata stopped midways of placing another stone, eyes slightly widened and a thriumphant smile tugging at his lips. Instantly coming back to reality, Sai clapped a hand over his mouth in horror, looking apologetically at Hikaru. "I-I mean, I-…It´s not that I know anything about this, I-I just…"

"I just told him some moves, because we were bored, you know? Nothing to get excited about." Hikaru tried to rescue the situation, knowing full well that it was nearly impossible to get out of this now without any casualties.

"Ah, I see." Ogata pushed his glasses up, a small smile on his face. "Now, since Shindo refuses to keep me company on the board, how about we play a little game? Just for fun, of course. Maybe I can teach you a few moves too?" 'Or you me.' He silently thought, trying to get his heartbeat back under control. How long had it been since his hands had started to sweat in the face of a potentially powerful opponent? And if his suspicions were right, this man would be the most formidable opponent of all.

"I think we should leave now." Hikaru pressed through gritted teeth and had half risen to his feet, when an iron fist wrapped around his wrist, holding him in place. "Hold it, Shindo. I´m sorry to say this, but you almost seem a bit too eager to get away from me with your friend. I´m starting to wonder if you are not trying to hide something from me."

"Of course I´m not! Why would I hide something from you? There is nothing to hide!"

"Well, then it shouldn´t be a problem if I´m playing a game with you friend now, should it?" Albeit friendly, Hikaru didn´t miss the frosty undertone and the unchallengeable command to sit down and keep his mouth shut. Scowling, Hikaru reluctantly sat back down on his chair, sending Sai silent messages to please not screw up.

Sai uncomfortably fidgeted on his stool, glancing from Hikaru to Ogata and back at the go bord, protesting weakly "But Mr. Ogata, I´m afraid I am neither a decent nor pleasant opponent, surely you wouldn´t want to waste your time with-"

"Oh please, it would be an absolute pleasure to play with you." Ogata replied sweetly, cleaning the board of the stones and handing the white stones to Sai. "I´ll give you a handicap of 5 stones." He waited for Sai to uncertainly place 5 stones on the board. Then he adjusted his glasses again, pushed the cigarette into the ashtray and grabbed for his own stone bowl. "Well then. Let´s begin."

* * *

**Hehe, another cliffy feeling incredible evil**

**Poor Hikaru, he just doesn´t get a break. At this rate he´ll just die 30 years earlier from stress...**

**On to the reviews of the reviews :**

**Pure Shikon: **He certainly needs some own clothes! But I am still struggling for what to have him wear, so I´m just trying to buy time;) Haha, and Ogata IS a demon (or so I´d like to believe).

**Frequency: **I was on a roll, yes, and hopefully this will continue for while :D Thanks again for your awesome betaing!

**soontobeonfanfiction: **Yeah, this was such a nice idea, wasn´t it? Too bad it wouldn´t have worked, but! we´ll have some ogata/sai action very soon to make up for it! And I do believe that this will be at least a 20 chapter story. Though I´m not exactly sure how many chapters it will be, but I suppose they will become longer again.

**lynixe: **Haha, I´m wondering who would pass out on a drinking contest first: ogata or sai :D (Maybe I can use that idea for later...). It seems, Sai doesn´t really WANT to escape however, but... We´ll see;) And yes, Hikaru sure has it hard, hasn´t he?

**NEXT CHAPTER: Will Sai be able to conceal his true identity throughout the game with Ogata? Will they play at all? And aren´t the Japanese _lucky_ to be allowed to smoke inside of cafés? sighs**

**Review? As you know by now (for I´m really stressing that sentence), the more reviews, the faster the updates. And I kept my promise over the last few chapters, didn´t I? :)**


	14. drama, drama and drama

**Here is chapter 14! Thanks to Frequency for partially beta-ing it. Sadly, she can´t do it anylonger, so would anyone else be interested?**

14

Ogata stared at the goban, still struggling to wrap his mind around what had just happened. A single sweat drop ran down his temple. He was barely paying attention to anything around him right now, all his attentiveness fixed on the board and the game. Unconsciously he had his hands balled into tight fist, digging his nails so hard into his palm that it should have hurt like hell, but he didn´t care.

Right now, to say that he was elated beyond reasoning (or so it seemed at least for any non-go player) was an exorbitant understatement. Though, in the beginning, everything had started out rather harmless. Ogata had summoned his most innocent and trustworthy smile, and let the other man place stones on the board. And now he had to admit that Sai had first done a really good job at misguiding him, as he really had played awful. Placing the stones on the board with clumsy fingers and chatting about unimportant things, Ogata had held up his façade too, albeit he had grown more and more disappointed with every stone Sai had placed.

During the beginning he even had started to have doubts concerning his suspicions for the mans identity, because his stones held no consequences whatsoever. Laughing sheepishly, Sai had apologized every time Ogata had taken one of his stones, sighing that he was no good at all. The blond had bitten his teeth, but smoothly replied that, no, it was indeed a pleasure to play against him, continuing his aggressive attacks and giving random comments on Sai's play, as they were technically playing shidougo. Eventually, he had managed to draw Sai out of his shell. It had started with Sai looking more and more like he was fighting an inner battle, his moves becoming more and more reluctant, his somewhat desperate, almost pleading glances at Hikaru becoming more frequent. The conversation had almost ceased.

From out of the corner of his eye, Ogata had noticed Hikaru tensing with every minute that passed, staring at the go board and nowhere else.

At one point, Sai had stopped his stone halfway to the board, his face devoid of any emotion. Ogata had tried to calm his beating heart down and asked with a slightly concerned voice, if there was a problem. Sai had looked up at him, and for a moment it had seemed as if he was searching for something in his face.

All Ogata had been able to do was looking back calmly but his own eyes had sent a silent, pleading message.

Then Sai had shaken his head a little, suddenly looking determined. "No." He had said quietly in a voice so serious that it seemed so untypical for the chirpy young man. Something about his whole aura had changed instantly. He couldn´t exactly put his finger on it, but Sai's almond eyes had become a somewhat deeper shade, a challenging, sly one that let him look somewhat unearthly.

And with that everything had changed. The stones were placed with confidence and a precision that make Ogata almost forget to breathe. No words had been spoken afterwards and Ogata had been too busy on the board to take another look, but he could almost feel the strength and experience that oozed from his adversary. Maybe it was his excitement or the shock that he indeed, truly and without a doubt was playing against Sai, who somehow had made his play less powerful then it usually was. Maybe it had been the sheer presence of the person who was Sai that nearly overwhelmed him, but the other managed to make a breath taking comeback on the board, despite the fact that he had been as good as finished. In the end it was Ogata who lost by half a moku.

And that was were they were right now.

"I knew it." The blonds voice cracked uncharacteristically at the end. Sai had been staring at the board as well, but Ogata's harsh whisper seemed to have broken a spell that had been cast over the other man, as he suddenly looked very uncertain again, and stuttered "E-eh, I really-"

"Don´t you dare telling me now that it was 'only a luck streak' or something!" the blond hissed threateningly, a piercing gaze boring into Sai's eyes, so that the man unconsciously flinched and cast his gaze downwards.

Relaxing his almost hostile expression, Ogata forced himself to calm down, as it wouldn´t do any good to scare Sai now, and put the tips of his fingers together. "I´m sorry." He tried in a soothing voice, inwardly sighing in relief when Sai looked up at him again, a small, unsure smile at his lips.

"I was just… I mean I have seen so very few with your talent, and probably _no one _who would have been able to do what you did just down." He waved at the board, still looking as if he couldn´t believe what he had experienced. Shacking his head Ogata continued. "To think that such talent had been gone to waste until now and certainly still would´ve if we hadn´t met… With your skill you can easily become a pro, one of the top league even. What am I saying, you might be very much able to obtain the Hand of God-"

He was suddenly interrupted when a screeching sound echoed through the café, as Hikaru abruptly stood from the table with his lips pressed into a thin line. Grabbing his bag and with the other hand a stunned Sais wrist, he pressed a "Thanks for the tea" through his teeth and attempted to make his escape. Unfortunately for the boy, though, Ogata quick-wittedly wrapped his hand around Sais other arm and held him in place.

He´d let him go once already, he wouldn´t submit to Hikarus selfish monopolizing of Sai again. "Hold it right there Shindou." Ogata therefore ordered icyly, not loosening his grip from the slender mans arm.

Hikaru made an exasperated noise, tugging at poor Sai, who looked uncertainly from his friend to Ogata and back.

"I´m sorry, but we really _have to go now_!" the boy hissed, glaring at the other man, who, rather unimpressed, adjusted his glasses.

"Don´t you know that it is quite impolite to just suddenly jump from the table and leave the host all by himself?" Ogata remarked sarcastically but apparently he had struck a chord with Sai, who looked slightly reproachfull at Hikaru, nodding his silent agreement.

"Not to mention interrupting someone who was about to say something important," Ogata added, noticing the even more enthusiastical nodding of Sai that made his hair just brush against Ogatas bare hand ever so slightly. One should have thought that, with looking all shiny and slick, Sai´s long strands would be cold and silky, but instead they felt very soft and warm, just like a kittens fur.

Now, this really wasn´t the time to marvel on the great go players hair texture, Ogata decided awkwardly, blinking the thought away. He had to fight a battle here first, and regarding Shindous unflinching glare, a fierce battle it would be. Damn the kid and his stubborness. Just as expected, the boy didn´t submit to his accusations but got that cocky look on his face, lifting his chin a little and remarking coldly. "Oh yeah? But it´s even more impolite to impose on busy people."

Sai looked thoughtful at that, but seemed to decide that Hikaru had a point and expectantly focused his attention back on Ogata.

"Suddenly you are busy? That´s quite strange, since before you seemed to have enough time for your little shopping trip…" lifting an elegant eyebrow, Ogata sipped calmly at his coffee while still holding on to Sai.

"But now we don´t have time anymore! Besides, Sai is cold and still has to recover from his injury and you already have strained him enough! Let´s go back Sai," Hikaru declared, pulling at his friends sleeve, but had to meet very unwelcome resistance as Ogata didn´t give up on Sai either. The man in question seemed uncertain too, for he couldn´t decide where to go, being pushed back and forth into two different directions.

"Is that so?" Ogata wondered aloud, inwardly dancing his mental victory dance. Finally Hikaru had admitted that the person he had just played with was _indeed_ Sai. Not that the blond man had harboured any doubts anymore, but still; it was so enticing to hear the name spoken.

"To me it seems more and more that it is _you_ that this is all about, not your friend here… You seem quite eager to get him away from me. What are you afraid of? Loosing your monopoly over him maybe? That´s quite selfish, you know…"

Biting his bottom lip hard, Hikarus grip became almost crushing, as he narrowed his eyes at Sai´s wavering gaze. "Don´t be stupid! I don´t care about monopoles and stuff, I just want him to get away from you because you´re just about to take advantage of him! He doesn´t want to hear your stuff anyway!!"

Unbothered by the insult, Ogata stared down at the boy for a minute, but finally let go of Sai´s abused arm and instead began to slowly polish his glasses with the hem of his sleeve. Casting a mischievous sideglance towards Hikaru, he focused his attention back at his glasses and calmly replied. "Now, that´s interesting. I´m wondering if _Sai_ shares your thoughts on this too."

"Of course he does!" Hikaru snorted, turning around and attempting to finally get Sai out of the café since Ogata had let go of the mans arm. But this time, the resistance did come from another source, as Sai remained glued to the spot. Uncertainly and almost guiltily hiding behind his hair, the former spirit cleared his troath and asked quietly: "Hikaru… can´t we just… at least listen to what Mr. Ogata has to say? I mean it really _is_ impolie to interrupt someone during his speech and Mr. Ogata just so kindly provided us with drinks…"

Looking disbelieving at his friend, Hikaru let go of his wrist too, but more because of the shock than from actually really wanting to release him. It suddenly dawned on him that, maybe, Sai had insisted on following the man to the café for ulterior motives that were very different from only trying to be polite.

"What are you saying? He only wants to use you! Don´t fall for it!"

"Now that´s overdoing it a bit, don´t you think?" Ogata remarked coldly. The boy sounded like he was some maneating ogre or something. Honestly…

"Besides, all I´m offering is what he deserves. With that skill of his, it would be a crime to keep his abilities hidden from the wold," he added nonchalantly, enthusiastically observing Sai who nervously fidgeted with his sleeve.

"Hikaru… Please?" throwing a desperate look at his friend, Sai had a very hard time to not burst into tears. He really wanted to listen to what Ogata had to say, but he didn´t want to betray his stubborn friend either… Just why had things turned out so complicated?!

Seeing Sais pained expression, Hikaru inwardly writhed and wished, really, that he could give in and let the man have his will. He knew it was cruel, but instead of granting Sai´s wish, Hikaru´s face became hard and he decided with in an authoritative fashion"No."

Crestfallen, Sais eyes went wide. But instead of obeying and leaving the café, a stubborn gleam appeared in the mans eyes, as his lips curled into a little pout and he demanded to know "Why not?"

"Because I say so!" Hikaru hissed angrily, making the other flinch, but it only seemed to further the others agitation.

"You are mean, Hikaru! I always have to do like you say and you never let me play go with anyone else besides you!" With his cheeks flushed, Sai indignantly stomped with his foot on the floor, and shaking his arms, he looked very much like a sulky, albeit very cute, little child. "It´s not like before anymore, I can decide for myself now! I don´t need you to tell me what I can do and can not! Maybe Mr. Ogata is right, maybe you are just selfishly trying to-" Horrified by his own words and the effect they had on Hikaru as the boys determined expression turned to one of hurt and betrayal, Sai stopped mid-sentence and let his arms drop to the side, looking very miserable. "I-I´m sorry… I didn´t mean it like that…"

The pained expression vanished on Hikarus face, as the boy suddenly looked very distanced and said with a somewhat husky voice. "So that´s what you think… Well, if you don´t need me anyway, then just do what you want, I don´t care anymore! Just go with him or whatever, I don´t give a damn! But don´t you dare come crying to me if anything goes wrong!" With that he turned on his heels and stormed out of the room, ignoring the strange looks of the concerned waitress.

"Hikaru…" Forlornly Sai stood in the almost empty room, a hand still outstretched as if to reach after his friend.

"What a brat," Ogata snorted, holding a lighter to his cigarette, that was dangling from the corner of his mouth.

He didn´t have the time to enjoy his drag however, as the long haired man suddenly sank to the floor sobbing, and the blond go player hurried to console his precious Sai, mumbling consoling words and stroking soothingly over his back. Deciding to take the flustered young man back to his appartment, Ogata placed the money for their drinks on the counter and then lead his once again guest back to his car.

* * *

**I´m sorry to announce that it might take some time for me to update this story. It just so happens that I have to restructure the plotline and I don´t know how long it will take. To top it off, I´ve been struck with a fairly bad case of writers block... **

**Anyway on to the reviews (which are quiet few this time, what´s wrong I wonder?)**

**soontobeonfanfiction:** I think you spelled 'congrats' right, but thanks anyways!! The next chapter would be exclusively dedicated to Sai and Ogata, it just don´t want to come out sigh I´m glad you enjoyed it so far, though!

**Pure Shikon:** Thanks for pointing that out, I´ll take it to heart for the next time! To tell the truth, I have absolutely no clue about go and try to avoid any details as much as I can and as it seems, that was the right decision ;) I try to include the whole drinking thingy into the next chapter, we need some after all the drama, don´t we? Thanks for reviewing!

**lynixe:** Don´t bother, I´m happy you reviewed anyway! As it turne out, Sai didn´t really want to hide his true identity, maybe. It´s too late now though :D Glad you liked it!

**Thanks to everyone who reviewed!**


	15. A mans best friend

**Sorry for the long wait. Enjoy!**

Ogata led the sobbing man into his apartment. Somehow Sai unnerved him to no end. It wasn´t so much that he was silently crying into his sleeve and looked so positively miserable that made Ogata feel uneasy, but the fact that the vicious little voice of his concious was whispering nasty things into his ears, such as 'It´s all your fault' and 'If you hadn´t tricked them they wouldn´t have had a fight'. Of course he didn´t listen, this was just ridiculous and he told the voice to shut up and go back to where it had crawled under from and die.

While he did a fairly successful job ignoring the voice with utter apathy he guided his guest to the living room and sat him down on a cushion, where Sai instantly rolled into a hunched, small ball.

Ogata made a few steps to the side, one hand in his pocket, the other rubbing his temple. Now, what was he to do with japans probably best go player?!

His own fingers irked to challenge him to another game, but considering the circumstances he assumed that people would maybe call that a little tactless… Well, he wasn´t people and he also wasn´t known to be a very considerate person. Besides, if he was down and needed something to 'cheer him up', a good game of go would definitely always do the trick.

So he got the goban from under the glass table, placing it into the others line of view and unceremoniously declared. "We should play a serious game this time."

Sai looked up from behind his sleeve with puffy eyes and followed the inviting hand gesturing towards the go board. To Ogatas immense relieve (honestly, he wasn´t actually good with crying woman, but with crying _man_ it was absolutely justified to say that he was a catastrophe), Sai sniffled, his big eyes gleaming with something that came close to enthusiasm.

The devious voice in the blonds head gaggled wih glee, however, when the others gaze dulled again and he said "I am very sorry, but I do not feel like playing a game right now. I hope you understand?" His eyes filled with new tears, as he feared Ogata would get angry at him for rejecting his offer.

The blond go player held up his hands in a soothing manner instantly, looking somewhat desperate at his guest. Just no more tears please.

Of course it didn´t work like that with Sai, the former ghost just sniveled again, big droplets running down his fair face and dripping to the carpet.

"I-I a-am so so-sorry…"

"Ah, don´t be, it´s alright," Ogata forced a wry smile to his lips, inwardly groaning, and roaming his pockets for a much needed cigarette. This was just getting a little too much…

He let his gaze wander through the room tiredly, just so he didn´t have to look at Sai. Really, how many tear liquid could the man produce, that should just be forbidden!

Ogata straightened when something came into view that stood innocently at the kitchen counter and smiled at him with the promise of being the solution to any of his (or better: their) problems.

Why hadn´t he thought about that earlier?! Must have been the stress. What did men do when everything failed them and the situation seemed to be hopeless? Just forget about everything and get hammered, of course.

Marching straight to the counter, Ogata got two glasses and the full bottle and went back, placing them on the glass table. He shoved one full glass towards his guest and ordered in an imperious tone "Drink.", already downing his first shot himself.

Looking up again, a delicate hand reached out to the offered drink, but then hesitated, as Sai inclined his head in question. "What is this?"

"The solution to all of your problems," Ogata said simply, already filling his own glass again and sitting on the sofa in a now rather relaxed manner.

Sceptically Sai eyed the golden liquid, but then he followed the others example and drank the whiskey in one gulp. Setting down the empty glass, he wiped over his mouth and made a face at the unusual taste. Ogata didn´t wait for any protest and just refilled it, pushing it back towards the other man.

Sai, who didn´t want to appear impolite, took it in hand and occasionally sipped at it. He didn´t understand how this should help him to sort out his argument with Hikaru, but after a while he had to admit that he didn´t feel that bad anylonger and the sips became larger. Ogata watched the other go player with satisfaction. At least the crying had ceased.

"You feel better now?"

"A little, thank you," Sai admitted, placing the empty glass on the table, where it was instantly refilled. "What is this?" he then asked curiously, guiding the whiskey to his lips.

"Burbon." Ogata lightened his cigarette and put the match into the ashtray, leaning back and exhaling a blue grey smoke into the room. Noticing the frowning of his guest, he added "It´s whiskey."

Sai looked still a little lost, and furrowing his brows, Ogata asked himself under which rock they had kept the poor boy hidden all the time. "Alcohol."

The others features brightened with understanding, and the blond inwardly snorted. Some people…

He took another deep drag from his cig, watching Sai clinging to his glass from the corner of his eye. For someone who looked so innocent and naïve where the daily business was concerned he was quite a beast on the board and of course Ogata was curious about the circumstances that surrounded his life. For example where he lived, what he did all day long when he wasn´t having fights with Hikaru and most importantly who his teacher was. From his appearance, the blond would have guessed that Sai was in his early to mid twenties and that was quite impressive for someone who had already beaten Toya Meijin. Actually Ogata had envisioned the netplayer sai to be a mischievous old man (much like a certain someone he didn´t want to name right now…) who maybe had retired from the pros and now had some fun stirring a commotion in the go world from his kitchen table or something. But then Sai´s style had been too unique to be of someone who had been known to the go world before.

What Ogata surely hadn´t expected was the young, long haired and soft hearted man sitting before his table now, with his glass clutched to his chest and a flushed face. Occasionally a hiccup emitted from between his full lips and he wavered slightly in his sitting position, looking dazed.

"Uh… this whiskey ´s really nice…" Sai slurred, trying to focus his eyes on Ogata and looking a little annoyed as it didn´t went so well.

"I told you," the other just said, refilling his own glass. He had to admit that he wasn´t entirely sober anymore himself, but who cared?

A giggle made the blond look up, frowning. Sai was hiding behind his half empty glass, looking apologetic, but another chuckle escaped his white throat.

"What´s so funny?"

Sai just shrugged, trying to look serious again, biting his lip.

Ogata narrowed his eyes and gave the man a scrutinizing look, but under his stare the long haired go player didn´t last long before he bursted into a new fit of giggles.

Sullenly Ogata pushed his cigarette into the ashtrey, and downed his own drink. "I want to have fun here too, you know…"

"I-I am sorry…" the other breathed between hiccups and chuckles, hiding his face behind his long hair as his shoulders shook with barely hidden amusement. "It´s no-nothing…"

"Alright," Ogata said with an arched eyebrow and grabbed for the bottle, putting it besides him on the sofa "No more for you."

Sai opened his mouth to indignantly protest against this unfairness, but instead only more snickering followed. It was some kind of contagious, though, and before long, Ogata was sitting on his sofa with a stupid grin, too.

"I am really sorry," the lilac haired man said after he had calmed down a little and shook his head. "I certainly have no reason to laugh, it is all _so_ sad. Maybe…" he lowered his head even more, hiding behind his long bangs "Maybe it would have been better if we never met…"

Suddenly a thud was heard as Ogata dropped to his knees in front of the other and grabbed for his hand, saying passionately "Don´t say this! That we met must have been destiny!"

Sai looked up in surpirse, finding the blond´s face only mere inches away from his own. Ogata was smelling of alcohol, but not in an unpleasant way. "Y-you think so?" Sai stammered, blushing a little at the close contact.

"Of course," Ogata said matter-of-factly, still holding his hand. "Just think about how unlikely it was for us to meet twice in this city. I´m sure there is some deity that wants us to be together." He grinned his most winning smile, entirely unaware of the double meaning of his words, for he only had his personal benefit in mind. And that would be having a formidable opponent and teacher at hand. Sai on the other hand was very aware of the possible ambiguity of his words and blushed even harder, averting his eyes shyly.

"Uh… If you say so…"

"That´s better," Ogata said, pleased, and let go of the others hands, instead grabbing for the bottle and generously offering the other another drink, which Sai downed instantly. Really, people in this day and age were so forward…

They were sitting on the ground for a while, drinking, and Ogata had decided to take Sai´s mind off of his silly thoughts and instead inform him a little about the go world and it worked rather well. Sai was hanging to his every word, which became the more slurred the more the evening progressed, but neither of them really cared. Sai because at a certain point he was too dizzy to follow anyways and Ogata mosty for the same reason also.

Sometime after midnight, Sai suddenly just dropped to the side and started snoring softly, whiskey glass still in hand. It took Ogata about fifteen minutes to realise that the occassional polite "uhs" and "I see"´s had ceased, and narrowed his eyes to focus his blurred vision.

Finding his guest asleep on the carpet, the blond grunted, finished his glass and put it not very unerringly on the table. Frowning, he hang over the glass table for another few minutes, trying to think about what he should do now.Sai was looking fast asleep and he didn´t want to wake him. But then he couldn´t let the great Sai sleep on the floor, this was simply unthinkable! Shaking his head in indignation at the mere thought, Ogata got up and staggered over to the sleeping form on unsure feet.

Carefully, or at least as careful as was possible in his drunken state, the blond rolled his guest over to get better access of his body and carry him to the sofa, but this proved to become much harder than he had anticipated. Despite his delicate build, Sai was a full grown and heavy man and showed absolutely no intensions on helping a little to relieve his host of his burden.

Grunting, Ogata pulled and teared at the man´s shirt to get him up, and after a while he had dragged the both of them near the sofa. It then happened though, that the fabric couldn´t stand the rude treatment anylonger and simply ripped apart, making both men fall into the cushions.

With Sai on top of him, snorring as if nothing had happened at all, Ogata stared dazedly at the ceiling, wondering what happened, but then just shrugged. He was too tired now to care about anything and just decided to follow Sai´s example and sleep away the whole incident in blissfull ignorance.

**I have to admit, that I am slowly losing interest in this story, which I am certain is also showing in my writing...**

**I´m sorry, I have no idea how much longer I will continue this. **

**Still, I would really be glad about reviews. Maybe one of you has an interesting idea on how to continue this.**

**(By the way: this whole drinking thing was inspired by a suggestion from Pure Shikon, thanks alot!)  
**


	16. A visit

**Hi there again, I bet you didn´t believe I´d update that soon now, did you? ;) But it happened that I received a review from SeraphimXII that was highly inspiring, so thank you very much again!**

**Enjoy!**

**16  
**

Toya Akira was currently standing beside the president of the U.S.A. in his best suit and benevolently smiled at the masses and flashing cameras, waving and holding up his medal for his special international achievements for the go world, when a very annoying beeping disrupted his victory parade. Drowsily a hand reached out from under the blankets, grabbing for the offending item and a moment later a muffled "Hello?" could be heard.

"_What´s up? Hikaru here."_

A groan followed, as a disheveled head appeared from under the pile of pillows and blankets and a single open eye tiredly glanced at the clock on the nightstand.

"Do you, by any chance, know what time it is right now?" It was a rhetorical question, with a fine dose of sarcasm, but of course Akira shouldn´t have expected too much from his fellow go player.

"_´course. 6 am and 14 minutes, 45 seconds, 46, 47…"_

Rubbing his tired eyes, the pro refrained from making a snide remark and instead just asked

"What do you want?"

"What´s with the grumpy attitude, eh? Thought you were already up, training and stuff… Man, you´re a lazy ass…"

Akira was very tempted to tell Hikaru where he could shove his self-righteous attitude up to, but being the polite young man he was, he did not do such thing of course. He could almost see the other smirking at the other end of the line, though, and that didn´t exactly brighten his mood. Because unlike a certain other person, he had been playing until deep into the morning and needed his sleep very much.

"_Anyways,_" the other boy became very business-like all of the sudden _"I call because I need to know Ogata´s adress and you should have it."_

That made Akira´s ears peek up, and his tone became slightly suspicious "What do you need that for?"

"_Uhm… Dunno… Maybe I want to make a visit?"_ the other murmured, making Akira even more alarmed.

"Why do you want to visit him?" he therefore inquired, sounding very stern.

"_Why should I tell you? I just want to,"_ came the annoyed reply and Toya could hear something crash to the floor, followed by a yelp.

Sighing, he glanced at his watch again. "You should tell me, because _you_ want to have his adress from _me_, hence _I_ hold the key position here and can ask whatever I want." Honestly, if only Hikaru would be as brilliant in real life as he was on the board sometimes… It would spare Akira the one or another headache.

"Oh yeah? Well, I wouldn´t have to call you if that guy could be found in the phone book, but noooo… So, you tell me now or what?"

"Hikaru, that still does not change anything about the balances of power," the other boy informed his friend while he rose from the bed and fumbled with his pyjamas. Really, if Hikaru and Ogata hadn´t just been such an unhealthy combination, Akira would have just told him and go back to sleep immediately "I will come over."

"_W-what?! But- Wait, you can´t do that!"_

"Why not? You want to go there, and you need my help. And since you won´t tell me what this is all about, I will have to accompany you."

"Bu-"

"I´ll be at your place in about 20 minutes. Be ready." Before further protest could follow, Akira snapped the phone shut and went to the bathroom to brush his teeth.

About half an hour later they were standing in the subway, sandwiched between the early salarymen and office ladies. Hikaru let himself grumpily be shoved around, hands shoved in his pockets and generally giving a very displeased impression. If only he hadn´t felt so guilty and the urgend need to apologize to Sai, he wouldn´t even have thought about taking the brat with him… But then, if Ogata really planned on introducing Sai to the go world and vice versa, Akira would come to know about him sooner or later anyway. And so he even had the privilege of seeing his dumbfounded face first hand and had even, for this special occasion taken the digi cam with him. He really expected this to become epic! Although right now, there was nothing amusing about the other. He just stood between the other people, dressed up to the nines as usual and looked just as if the elbows in his ribs wouldn´t faze him in at all. At least he had stopped nagging about what Hikaru wanted from Ogata. For which he was thankful, because Hikaru had one hell of a night after him and despite his cocky remarks, he was by no means a person for such early hours…

"We have to get out here," Akira informed him quietly and politely shoved his way through the masses of people. Hikaru hurriedly followed before the path could close again. Once outside the train he heaved a sigh and waited until Akira was done freeing his suit from nonexistant lints, impatiently drumming with his food on the floor.

Lifting an eyebrow, Akira eventually straightened his jacket and marched to the exit, the other shuffling behind.

They had to fight against another flow of incoming workers, but once they were out on the sunny streets it was going a little better. They walked down the alleys in silence. Akira would have loved to tickle the reason for his visit out of Hikaru, if his pride hadn´t forbidden such a thing and the other boy was to occupied coming up with a decent apology to care about anything else.

It was because of his distracted state, that he suddenly bumped into Akira´s straigt back, and angrily rubbed his hurting nose, as the other unneccessarily remarked "We are there."

"No shit," the half blond snapped, but then exclaimed with a dismissive gesture of his hands. "Well thanks. I´ll find the rest of the way by myself now."

Akira just graced him with a brief 'as if' glance and then marched towards the doors, passing by the emerging inhabitants. Hikaru just shrugged, it had been worth a try, and then hurried inside before the door could close and lock him out.

His partner had already called the elevator and impatiently held the door open. Once Hikaru was inside, he pressed a button and the doors slid shut. Low, pleasant music engulfed them in the spacious, mirrored box and Hikaru wished for the day to come when _he_ would make enough money to get himself such a fancy apartment, instead of the cramped room he had now. Then maybe his mom would finally stop bickering about his 'creative chaos'. Though if one asked Hikaru, it had become really better since Sai was living with him again.

Sai… The boy bit his lip, staring to the ground. Just why did he have to be so stubborn all the time? It wasn´t like Hikaru wanted to annoy him with his decision, he´d only thought that it would have been for the best… Well, maybe it had been a little selfishness too, but after Sai had just vanished so suddenly and now was back, it was quite understandable that Hikaru had wanted to spent as much time together with him as possible, wasn´t it? Who knew when he would dissappear again? Besides, there were still problems that hey had to figure out. But that had to wait for now, first they had to settle their argument. How he knew Sai, the former ghost must have already dissolved into a weeping puddle of misery and a part of him didn´t envy Ogata at all right now. Served the bastard right for trying to set them up to a fight…

The elevator stopped with a sound and the doors slid open again. Stepping into the bright floor, Akira turned right and stopped before an apartment that had the words Ogata Seiji in elegant letters carved into a sign.

Akira raised his fist and politely raped against the door. They waited for two minutes, but nothing happened, so the young man tried again, looking a little troubled. It would be unfortunate if Ogata wasn´t at home, but it would be even worse if he _was _but had absolutely no intention on receiving guests at this hour of day. Ogata wasn´t known to be a pleasant person when he was pissed…

Before Akira could make the assumption that they should come back later, Hikaru had already made an impatient step forward and pounded against the wood, shouting "Helloooooo, this is Shindou Hikaru, open the door!"

Akira stared at him petrified and as if he had lost his mind but Hikaru even went one better and boldly grabbed for the doorknob, huffing as none answered. To their surprise the door wasn´t locked and so the blond stepped in, followed by a flustered partner who hissed at him to just leave it he was ignored, as Hikaru prepared the camera in his pocket to get the snap shot of his life when he confronted Akira with Sai.

The sight that greeted them in the living room, though, met either of them utterly unprepared as they came to stand frozen to the spot upon a half nacked Sai with his shirt all torn, snoring away softly on Ogata´s chest and the blond hugging him like a blanket in a thight embrace.

A click was heard, a flashlight was seen and then chaos erupted.

**There you have it. Mind to tell me if this is going into the right direction?**

**I also apologize for not answering the reviews in the last chapter. I was really depressed...**

**But here you go:**

**soontobeonfanfiction:** I´m glad you liked it! As for the 20 chapters... I noticed that I shouldn´t make promises, so I´ll be a bitmore careful from now. But I guess there will be quite a bit to come! Hm... I could write a oneshot for you, I think. You only have to tell me what other character beside Sai you want and I´ll try my best :)

**lynixe:** Hehe, your idea was really tempting, but I assumed that we should get down to the Ogata/Sai thing already. I´ll keep that in mind for future chapters, though, so thank you very much for the suggestion! I hope you like the new chapter, though!

**Pure Shikon:** As it seems I have a few more chapters in store, but I will do as you say: whatever happens, it´ll get an ending! I do not like it myself to read a story that just suddenly stops... Your suggestions are always welcome, though!

**Alasse Telrunya:** At least we have one new character (I just hope I got his personality right...), so thank you for the suggestion. It really was a relieve to work with a new person. If you´re always stuck with the same characters, at one point it get´s kind of boring then... Hope you liked it!

**SeraphimXII:** What can I say, it was just a brilliant idea, and it definitely helped me get over the writer´s block. Thank you! And whenever you have other ideas do not hesitate to tell me please! I hope you like my version of your idea...

**steffi L. :** Hehe, vielleicht magst du dich ja irgendwann nochmal durch die anderen Kapitel durchwurschteln, eh? Ein hoch auf deinen Supercomputer! XD

**Review please?**

**EDIT: I postet the wrong chapter, so sorry!  
**


	17. Last Chapter

Last chapter

After everything had been cleared up as a misunderstanding (Ogata having a hard time to explain to a scandalized Hikaru that by no means had he sexually harrassed his friend while at the same time assuring a slightly confused and pouting Sai that it wasn´t because he did not find him attractive or so, and Akire shuffling away with a funny expression plastered to his face) Sai and Hikaru had made up and Sai had been introduced to a flabberghasted Akira, the former ghost had been provided with a fresh shirt. Despite his hangover he managed to beat Akira in a game the younger had demanded they play because he wouldn´t believe that Sai was THAT sai, but after a crushing defeat the boy had to accept that it was true. While he dealt with a gloating Hikaru Sai had a much needed shower and Ogata had gone to the kitchen to make some strong coffee and get some rest fom the bickering teens.

They had some breakfast and Akira constantly tried to urge Sai that he met his father to play another game with him. Hikaru tried to block those attempts, looking nervous but even Ogata encouraged the idea, throwing smug glances at the teen and getting some payback for the former accusations. Sai remained silent and eventually Hikaru lost the battle. They went to Akiras house, meeting a slightly startled Toya Mejin, but he politely received the guests and patiently listened to his sons agitated explanations, occasionally throwing doubtful looks at Sai who exitedly poked the fishes in his pond with a stick.

They had a long game that eventually convinced the older man that his opponent was indeed the netplayer sai and he and Ogata immediately wanted to take preparations to introduce the genius to the rest of the go world. Sai was excited of course, smiling and clinging to Hikarus arm while bowing before his two new patrons again and again. It was then that an unexpected problem occurred as Ogata asked Sai for his passport and Sai had to tell him that he did not have anything like this. Hikaru bit his lips because this was exactly what he´d been afraid of but both men did not get the seriousness of the problem, instead asking for his driving license or something similar that would prove his identity. Hikaru and Sai kneeled on the tatami, looking to the ground and Ogata´s eyes widened as he carefully inquired if the reason why Sai had been so secretive about himself might be because he was an illegal.

Of course the former ghost wanted to object instantly (despite not even understanding what 'illegal' meant, but feeling that it was something a decent person wasn´t. And he didn´t want Ogata to think anything bad about him since he rather liked him) but Hikaru motioned for him to stand back and explained calmly that this was indeed the reason.

A gloomy athmosphere engulfed the room until Sai couldn´t take it anylonger and excused himself, only holding back his desperate tears until he reached the garden.

A few moments later he felt a reassuring hand on his back and Ogata kneeled beside him, slowly stroking over his back and eventually taking out a handkerchief. He gently grabbed for the man´s chin and wiped away the tears and in a serious and determined tone explained that he would do everything within his power (and beyond) to assure that Sai could realize his dream and that he had not lied when he´d said that he thought that it had been destiny that they met. Sai sobbed a little, but then nodded, thanking the man shyly.

Ogata guided Sai back to the room, taking his hand and they sat down on the tatami again to discuss possible solutions to the problem. It was rather hard because neither Sai nor Hikaru could tell the truth about Sai´s origins and avoided any questions concerning his past. They made up a story in which Hikaru had met Sai accidently and they had become friends, the latter starting to teach the former how to play go and occassionally playing on the net.

They pondered the problem fo three days in which Sai slowly abandoned all hopes to ever become an official member of the go-world. Ogata wasn´t less frustrated, for one because they were running in circles and not being able to find a solution to the dilemma, but also because he didn´t like seeing Sai so miserable. Apparently Toya noticed his distress and his attempts to cheer the long haired man up and one evening bid him to a talk in private.

The older calmly drank his tea while watching the agitated blond pacing the room in agitation, cursing fate. Eventually Toya sat his cup down and calmly stated that he thought that there was a solution, but that he did not know if Ogata would approve of it. He then introduced him to the idea of getting Sai married to a person with legal papers.

Ogata was a little stunned and stopped his pacing, asking with a frown who he thought Sai should marry and Toya pointed out that Sai was a good looking, well-mannered young man so it shouldn´t be a problem at all to find someone who would be willing to marry him. He then asked if Ogata hadn´t someone in mind, one of his female acquaintances maybe, but the blond rejected that idea instantly, looking somehwat offended. Toya told him to please think about it and Ogata left the room, feeling somewhat sick. The idea of Sai marrying some stranger sat just wrong with him, even more so since he´d spent a lot of time with the man in the last days as he tried to keep him occupied from his depressing thoughts.

He went to search for Sai and found him turtoring and observing a game between Hikaru and Akira.

Upon entering the room Sai looked up and excused himself from the boys, following Ogata in the garden and asking with hope in his eyes if they had come to a solution yet. Ogata just shook his head and Sai said that it was okay, but he still cried those silent tears of his and it pained Ogata so that he heard himself say that maybe there was a solution, if only Sai would agree to marry him. The younger man looked shocked at first but then threw himself around Ogatas neck and before the blond could realize what he´d done their marriage was officially announced by an exuberant, happy Sai.

Everyone was astounded (excluding Toya who just calmly sipped his tea and congratulated himself on finally having his dense former student pushed into the right direction). Once he´d given his promise Ogata couldn´t back out of the whole thing and frankly didn´t really want to either. So they got married with a small party, Sai looking happy and beautiful and Ogata being a little stiff and feeling awkward about the idea that he got married to another man. But to his own surprise he soon became accustomed to it and even felt at ease with it. And before long their friendship turned into love and they both climbed their way up to the top of the go society and then they lived happily ever after.

* * *

** That´s it folks, the last chapter. I am sorry that it turned out like this and that I can only provide you with such a crappy ending but it´s an ending nontheless *sighs* (And yes, I am aware that same sex marriage is not legal in Japan, at least not now. But then ghosts living in go boards is just as realisitic, isn´t it ;))  
**

**Thanks to everyone who reviewed, put this story on alert or favs.**

**Sayonara.  
**


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